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Nikkei BP Announces Three Winners of the Fifth “Japan Innovators Award”Tokyo - November 2, 2006 - Nikkei Business Publications (President & CEO: Seiichi Oteru; Tokyo) has announced the winners of its fifth Japan Innovators Award. Established in 2002, the award aims to revitalize the Japanese economy by shedding light on unique and innovative individuals. Nominations were made from a broad range of fields and individuals who have breathed new life into Japanese industries by creating new industries and business models, new technologies for the future, and new universal values. Nominees also included those who had contributed to "software power, "for the selection of the " Japan Cool Award"- an award newly established in 2004 - in addition to the Grand Prize and Excellence Award. The winners for each award were decided in the final selection committee held the other day. The awarding ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. on November 29 at the Takanawa Prince Hotel, Tokyo. The winners are as follows: Grand Prize - Mr. Masao Kosuge (Director, Asahiyama Zoo) Excellence Award - Dr. Ryuji Ueno (Co-founder and CEO, Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) - Dr. Yoshiyuki Sankai (Professor, Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering, the University of Tsukuba) Japan Cool Award The purpose of Japan Innovators Award is to recognize those Japanese people who strive to pioneer new markets with unique ideas and technologies. This year, as well as in past years, the winners were selected for their "spirit and courage to bring fresh air into the Japanese economy and great contribution to creation of new markets and business models." Points of recognition for each award winner are as follows: The Grand Prize winner Mr. Masao Kosuge has successfully turned Asahiyama Zoo, once on the brink of closing, into one of the most popular zoos in the country, with his invention of "ethological exhibits" to let visitors observe natural behaviors of the wildlife. The revival of Asahiyama Zoo has brought a breath of fresh air into not only other zoos in the country but also tourism and service industries as a whole including aquariums and resort facilities. The fact that its unique efforts had raised a question about the "hardware-oriented" approach that many of the national and local governments were taking and paved a way to rejuvenate local regions - a key step to ultimately bring the country to full recovery - was highly evaluated in the award decision. "Ethological exhibits," which Director Kosuge invented, is to show the wildlife in their true colors. Seals swimming up and down through large cylinder-shaped tunnel with amazing freedom, polar bears making a dashing dive from rocky waterside into water for prey - these exhibitions show dynamic and intrinsic movements of animals - never seen in the conventional type of zoos - and move the hearts of visitors with such amazement and excitement. The number of annual visitors, which had dropped to 0.26 million people in 1996, broke the 2 million mark in 2005. The Zoo has also brought tremendous economic effect to Asahiyama City, with the record high of 5.64 million tourists (up 33% over the previous year) rushing into this 0.36-million-population city in FY2005. Director Kosuge's achievement in reviving the Zoo and its effects in stimulating the service industries and the local economy as a whole earned him a unanimous vote for the Grand Prize. Excellence Award winner Dr. Ryuji Ueno discovered a significant action in an internal substance that had long been believed to have no physiological function, and contributed to development of new drugs with a breakthrough mechanism. Development of a new drug costs a decade and the fund of more than 10 billion yen, in incredible one-in-ten-thousand chances of a new substance turning into a new drug. Dr. Ueno marketed anti-glaucoma/ocular hypertension drug "Rescula Eye Drops" (manufactured and marketed by R-Tech Ueno, Ltd., founded by Dr. Ueno in 1989) in 1994, using pharmacological effect of functional fatty acids that he himself named "prostone." This year, he made it to launch of chronic constipation drug "AMITIZA" from his U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland). Dr. Ueno has shifted his base to the U.S. since founding of Sucampo in 1996, and the company is expected to list on the NASDAQ exchange as early as by the end of the year. Few Japanese have ever succeeded in starting business and listing in the U.S., and Dr. Ueno's combined talents in invention and business, which make him a world-class innovator, were highly evaluated in the award decision. Dr. Yoshiyuki Sankai won the prize for his development of a "robot suit" called "HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb)" that reinforces the strength of human's lower body and its practical application ahead of anyone. Wearing HAL, you can lift a 40 kg weight with one arm and the power of lifting just 1 kg weight. The excellent design not only reinforces muscles but also supports the labor in accordance with the wearer's movement, and its application in hospitals as well as nursing care/hard labor scenes is anticipated. Last August, a man in HAL attempted to climb the 4,164-meter-elevation Swiss Alps, carrying a physically-impaired person on his back. Although he did not get to the summit, the challenge let the world know the potential of HAL. As robots are expected to play a key role in facilitating industries in the 21st century, there is a fierce competition among universities and companies over the lead in robot making. Dr. Sankai won the prize for his achievement of starting a university-based venture CYBERDYNE Inc. in 2004 and putting a mass-production sys class=text10tem in place ahead of the pack. Selection Committee Chairman
Uichiro Niwa Chairman, ITOCHU Corporation Mari Matunaga Director, BANDAI, Co., Ltd. Seiichiro Yonekura Hitotubashi University For further details, please contact: |
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