In 2002 two Japanese won Nobel Prizes in the same year for the first time ever. Masatoshi Koshiba, 76, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, shared the award in the field of physics, while Koichi Tanaka, 43, a researcher at a private institute, did the same in the field of chemistry. While the backgrounds and work environments of these Nobel laureates may be completely different, companies played a large role in the success of both. The firms in question are located in Kyoto and Hamamatsu, two cities that have an environment conducive to technology ventures and have given birth to a large number of businesses. The fact that two Japanese won Nobel Prizes in science demonstrates the strength of the private sector's research and development.

Corporate Help for Nobel Prize Winners
Tanaka is a researcher at Shimadzu Corp. in Kyoto and was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize for chemistry for his work in developing a method of analyzing proteins and other biological macromolecules by blasting them with lasers. Tanaka's work environment at the company played a key role in his success. "I wasn't under pressure to produce profits," he said at a press conference following the announcement of the award. "They gave me free rein to do research, and I'm grateful to the company for that."

Actually Tanaka had wanted to work in such a milieu ever since his student days. "I didn't set my sights on some big corporation," he recalls. "I wanted to be in a firm working on the cutting edge, one driven by the entrepreneurial spirit and exploring things nobody had ever studied." He wound up with Shimadzu, and as it turned out, that was the right place for him to be.

Compared with the laboratories of large Western corporations, Japan's private laboratories offer relatively low salaries, and funds for basic research in particular are scarce. Regardless of these drawbacks, though, many skilled researchers become so engrossed in their experiments that they lose all track of time. Tanaka's Nobel Prize has given encouragement to such people working behind the scenes in research institutes.

Professor Koshiba, meanwhile, was recognized for his work in detecting cosmic neutrinos, particles formed by fusion in stars. Using a large observation device called "Kamiokande," Koshiba's team was the first to detect neutrinos from a supernova explosion. Koshiba's ideas and leadership were instrumental in the creation of Kamiokande, but it could not have been built without the private-sector technology Koshiba was able to draw on.

The heart of this device was an ultrasensitive light sensor, called a photomultiplier tube, created by Hamamatsu Photonics. This firm, which was founded in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, soon after World War II and has fewer than 2,000 employees, is a power in the R&D field, as evidenced by its 40% share of the global market for photomultiplier tubes. Koshiba decided to take advantage of this technical know-how and in 1979 requested that the company develop a large-scale light sensor. At that point the company only had a test device with a diameter of 8 inches, but Koshiba wanted a much larger one measuring some 25 inches across. The company was able to come up with a prototype in just six months and turned it into a finished product in 1982. This was a light sensor with a diameter of 20 inches – the largest in the world at the time – and it was installed in Kamiokande. Five years later, in February 1987, it succeeded in capturing neutrinos from a supernova some 170,000 light years away.

A Tale of Two Innovative Cities
Kyoto and Hamamatsu, the locations of these two companies, have many things in common. Since the Meiji era (1868-1912) both have given birth to a large number of firms renowned for their research and development. Kyoto is home to such leading high-tech companies as Kyocera, Omron, Nintendo, Murata Manufacturing, and Japan Storage Battery. Many companies have spun off from or been influenced by Shimadzu, which has served as a kind of incubator for ventures in the Kyoto area. Hamamatsu has been much the same. Soon after World War II a number of top companies were formed there, including Honda Motor, Suzuki Motor, and Yamaha.

The historical atmosphere in these two cities is also similar. Ever since the Meiji government moved the seat of the imperial throne from Kyoto to Tokyo in 1868, Kyoto residents have had a deep feeling of rivalry with Tokyo. Kyoto University, for example, takes pride in the free spirit it seeks to cultivate in students, distinguishing it from the establishment spirit found in the University of Tokyo, and does all it can to turn out as many or more Nobel laureates. Hamamatsu, meanwhile, is imbued with a spirit of independence and undertaking new challenges, which perhaps derives from its experience of "going it alone" during the Edo period (1603-1868), when the feudal lord governing it was constantly being replaced.

The corporate cultures of these two companies are connected with the environment in which they were formed. Shimadzu advertises itself as a firm that "places a priority on developing original technology and contributing to society," while Hamamatsu Photonics urges its personnel to "seek out unexplored realms." It is attitudes like these that provide Japan's companies with strong R&D setups and help the nation's scientists bring home Nobel Prizes.