List of Asian Nobel laureates - wikipedia List of Asian Nobel laureates The Nobel Prize is an annual, international prize first awarded in 1901 for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. An associated prize in Economics has been awarded since 1969. Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 800 individuals. Asians have been the recipients of all six award categories : Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economics. The first Asian recipient, Rabindranath Tagore, was awarded the Literature Prize in 1913. The most Nobel Prizes awarded to Asian in a single year was in 2014, when five Asians became laureates. The most recent, a Japanese - born English writer, Kazuo Ishiguro was awarded his prizes in 2017. To date, there have been sixty - nine Asian winners of the Nobel Prize, including twenty - six Japanese and twelve Israeli, and twelve Chinese ( not including Tibetan and Non-Chinese Laureates born in China ). The following are not including Russian. Contents 1 Physics 2 Chemistry 3 Physiology or Medicine 4 Literature 5 Peace 6 Economics 7 Non-Asian born Laureates of Asian descent 8 Non-Asian Laureates born in Asia 9 References Physics Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment 1930 Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman British Raj Physics First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in science 1949 Hideki Yukawa Japan Physics First Japanese Nobel laureate 1957 Chen Ning Yang China Physics First Chinese Nobel laureate 1957 Tsung - Dao Lee China Physics First Chinese Nobel laureate 1965 Sin - Itiro Tomonaga Japan Physics 1973 Leo Esaki Japan Physics 1979 Abdus Salam Pakistan Physics First Pakistani Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar United States, Physics Born in India 1998 Daniel C. Tsui United States Physics Born in China 2002 Masatoshi Koshiba Japan Physics 2008 Yoichiro Nambu United States Physics Born in Japan 2008 Makoto Kobayashi Japan Physics 2008 Toshihide Maskawa Japan Physics 2009 Charles K. Kao United Kingdom and United States, Physics First Hong Kong citizenship Nobel laureate 2014 Isamu Akasaki Japan Physics 2014 Hiroshi Amano Japan Physics 2014 Shuji Nakamura United States Physics Born in Japan 2015 Takaaki Kajita Japan Physics Chemistry Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment 1981 Kenichi Fukui Japan Chemistry First Asian and Japanese Nobel laureate in Chemistry 1986 Yuan T. Lee Taiwan and United States Chemistry First Taiwanese Nobel laureate 2000 Hideki Shirakawa Japan Chemistry Ryōji Noyori Japan Chemistry 2002 Koichi Tanaka Japan Chemistry Aaron Ciechanover Israel Chemistry Avram Hershko Israel Chemistry 2008 Osamu Shimomura Japan Chemistry 2009 Venkatraman Ramakrishnan United Kingdom and United States Chemistry Born in India 2009 Ada Yonath Israel Chemistry Ei - ichi Negishi Japan Chemistry Akira Suzuki Japan Chemistry 2011 Dan Shechtman Israel Chemistry 2013 Arieh Warshel Israel and United States Chemistry 2013 Michael Levitt Israel, United Kingdom and United States Chemistry 2015 Aziz Sancar Turkey and United States Chemistry First Turkish Nobel laureate in science Physiology or Medicine Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment 1968 Har Gobind Khorana United States Physiology or Medicine First Asian born and Indian born Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine Susumu Tonegawa Japan Physiology or Medicine First Asian and Japanese Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine 2012 Shinya Yamanaka Japan Physiology or Medicine 2015 Satoshi Ōmura Japan Physiology or Medicine 2015 Tu Youyou China Physiology or Medicine First Chinese woman Nobel laureate 2016 Yoshinori Ohsumi Japan Physiology or Medicine Literature Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment 1913 Rabindranath Tagore British Raj Literature First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate 1966 Shmuel Yosef Agnon Israel Literature First Israeli Nobel laureate 1968 Yasunari Kawabata Japan Literature 1994 Kenzaburō Ōe Japan Literature 2000 Gao Xingjian France Literature Born in China 2006 Orhan Pamuk Turkey Literature First Turkish Nobel laureate 2012 Mo Yan China Literature 2017 Kazuo Ishiguro United Kingdom Literature Born in Japan Peace Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment 1973 Lê Đức Thọ ( declined award ) North Vietnam Peace First Asian and Vietnamese Nobel laureate in Peace Eisaku Satō Japan Peace 1978 Menachem Begin Israel Peace 1979 Mother Teresa India Peace First Asian woman Nobel laureate Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama India Peace First Tibetan Nobel laureate 1991 Aung San Suu Kyi Burma Peace First Myanmar Nobel laureate 1994 Yasser Arafat Palestine Peace First Palestinian Arab in Nobel laureate 1994 Shimon Peres Israel Peace 1994 Yitzhak Rabin Israel Peace Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo Timor - Leste Peace First Timorese Nobel laureate José Ramos - Horta Timor - Leste Peace First Timorese Nobel laureate 2000 Kim Dae - jung South Korea Peace First Korean Nobel laureate 2003 Shirin Ebadi Iran Peace First Iranian Nobel laureate 2006 Muhammad Yunus Bangladesh Peace First Bangladeshi Nobel laureate in Peace Liu Xiaobo China Peace First Asian Nobel laureate in prison 2011 Tawakkul Karman Yemen Peace First Arab Woman and First Yemeni Nobel laureate 2014 Kailash Satyarthi India Peace First Indian Nobel laureate in Peace 2014 Malala Yousafzai Pakistan Peace First Pakistani Woman Nobel laureate and youngest Nobel laureate Economics Year Image Laureate Country at the time of the award Category Comment 1998 Amartya Sen India Economics First Asian and Indian Nobel laureate in Economics 2002 Daniel Kahneman Israel and United States Economic 2005 Robert Aumann Israel and United States Economic Non-Asian born Laureates of Asian descent Main article : List of Chinese Nobel laureates § Laureates of Han Chinese linkage Non-Asian Laureates born in Asia Main article : List of Chinese Nobel laureates § Non-Chinese Laureates born in China Main article : List of Japanese Nobel laureates § Laureates with Japanese linkage References Jump up ^ `` Nobel Prize '' ( 2007 ), in Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed 14 November 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online : An additional award, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden and was first awarded in 1969 Jump up ^ `` All Nobel Laureates ''. Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2010 - 03 - 01. Nobel Prizes Lists of Nobel laureates Prizes Chemistry Economics Literature Peace Physics Physiology or Medicine Laureates by subject Chemistry Economics Literature Peace Physics Physiology or Medicine by criterion African Arab Asian Black Female Latino and Hispanic Jewish by country Argentine Australian Belgian Bengali Chinese Danish Hungarian Indian Israeli Italian Japanese Korean Liberian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Spanish Swedish Turkish Welsh by religion Christian Jewish Muslim Non-religious by year By year by university affiliation University affiliation by occupation Head of Government and State Committees and organisations Nobel Foundation Nobel Committees Chemistry Economics Physics Physiology or Medicine Norwegian Nobel Committee Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute Related topics Controversies Other prizes Alfred Nobel Nobel Memorial Prize ( not one of the original Nobel Prizes ). Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Asian_Nobel_laureates&oldid=853716351 '' Categories : Lists of Nobel laureates Asian people Lists of Asian people Talk Contents About Wikipedia پنجابی اردو Tiếng Việt Edit links This page was last edited on 6 August 2018, at 15 : 02 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who was the first nobel laureate to have been born in asia
Answer: Rabindranath Tagore