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No. 48 Jun. 20122012 (28th) Japan Prize Presentation Ceremony
Attended by Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan
Prize awarded to four doctors from the United States and JapanThe 2012(28th) Japan Prize Presentation Ceremony was held on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at the National Theatre ofJapan in Tokyo. The prize is awarded to those whose original and outstanding achievements in science and technology arerecognized as having advanced the frontiers of knowledge and served the cause of peace and prosperity for mankind.
This year, there were 396 nominations in the field of “Healthcare and Medical Technology” and 167 nominations in thefield of “Environment, Energy and Infrastructure.” From the tota1 563 nominations, the 2012 Japan Prize was awarded tofour scientists.
In the field of “Healthcare and Medical Technology”, it was awarded to Dr. Janet Rowley, Dr. Brian Druker and
Dr. Nicholas Lydon for their development of a new therapeutic drug targeting cancer-specific molecules. Dr. Masato Sagawa
received the prize in the field of “Environment, Energy and Infrastructure” for developing the world's highest performing
Nd-Fe-B type permanent magnet and contributing to energy conservation.

The Japan Prize is awarded to scientists throughout the world who havebeen credited with original and outstanding achievements and have mademajor contributions to the advancement of science and technology, thereby
manifestly furthering the cause of peace and the prosperity of mankind.

While the prize encompasses all categories of science and technology, twofields of study are designated for the prize each year in consideration ofdevelopments in science and technology.
Each Japan Prize laureate receives a certificate of merit and a prize medal.
A cash prize of 50 million yen is also awarded to each prize field.

Message from the Laureates
Field : Healthcare and Medical Technology
Achievement

Development of a new therapeutic drug targetingcancer-specific molecules

Dr. Janet D. Rowley
Born: April 5, 1925
Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor of
Medicine, Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and
Human Genetics, The University of Chicago

Dr. Brian J. Druker
Born: April 30, 1955
Professor and Director of
OHSU Knight Cancer Institute,Oregon Health & Science University

Your Majesties the Emperor and Empress, distinguished guests, myformer co-works from Japan, ladies and gentlemen. I am exceedingly
honored to receive the Japan Prize which is one of the most prestigious
prizes in the world. I am proud and humbled to join the previous winners
who included the world’s most distinguished scientists ! I am delighted
to share this honor with eminent scientists who built on my discovery of
the translocation.
At the time of its discovery in 1972, the role of translocations was
unclear; in fact it was uncertain whether they played any role at all in theprocess of the malignant transformation of cells. When the firsttranslocation breakpoints were cloned, it was found that the genes thatwere involved were known “cancer-causing” genes and thus it was clearthat translocations were critical to the malignant process. Knowing thefunction of the genes at the translocation breakpoints, my co-prize
winners developed compounds that inhibited the abnormal function ofthese genes. Fortunately they could modify these compounds which werethen extremely effective in treating chronic myelogenous leukemia.
Finally, I must thank the Japan Prize Foundation and the members of
the Selection Committee for selecting me to be one of the recipients ofthe 2012 Japan Prize for Healthcare and Medical Technology.

I am greatly honored to receive the Japan Prize and to be in thecompany of such esteemed past winners. I am especially honored to begiven this award in the presence of Your Majesties the Emperor andEmpress.
I especially want to thank the executives of the Japan Prize
Foundation, and all members of the Selection Committee for thisincredible honor.
I am particularly honored to receive this award with Dr. Janet Rowley, who
has been an inspiration to me and with my good friend, Dr. Nicholas Lydon atireless champion for targeted therapies.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank my many friends, colleagues andcollaborators from Japan who have helped me throughout my career. This
includes Dr. Tsukasa Oda and Dr. Shu Tamura, two post-doctoral fellows
who helped me start my lab, Dr. Yuzuru Kanakura and Dr. Atsushi Oda
who published numerous papers as collaborators with me, and all of theinvestigators from Japan who helped with the early imatinib clinical trials.
I am very fortunate that I work not only as a scientist but as aphysician and every day I get to see patients who are thriving because of
our work. They inspire me to continue to work for better treatments andit is in their honor that I accept this award.

Field : Environment, Energy and Infrastructure

Achievement

Developing the world s highest performing Nd-Fe-B typepermanent magnet and contributing to energy conservation

Dr. Masato Sagawa
Born: August 3, 1943
President,Intermetallics Co., Ltd.

Dr. Nicholas B. Lydon
Born: February 27, 1957
Founder and Director,
Blueprint Medicines

It is a great honor to be here today in the presence of Their Majesties theEmperor and Empress, to humbly accept the prestigious Japan Prize together
with Dr. Janet D. Rowley, Dr. Brian J. Druker, and Dr. Nicholas S. Lydon.
The “Environment, Energy, and Infrastructure,” is the field I havebeen awarded this prize for developing the world's highest performing
Nd-Fe-B type permanent magnet and contributing to energy
conservation. When I consider that one of the most important research
themes humanity faces today is energy conservation, I feel I haveachieved what I once dreamed of: being able to someday help others.
I am a materials scientist, a researcher of magnetic materials. It has
taken much time and effort to bring this research to fruition, and for thoseresults to be of service to society. Having gained a certain hint, I began
studying alloys formed from combinations of rare earths, iron, and boron
as permanent magnetic materials, and succeeded in developing the world’s
first Nd-Fe-B magnet. However, its subsequent development is the
combined result of numerous researchers and engineers, including those
assembled here today. I would like to share the honor of this award withthese colleagues.
Last but not least, I sincerely thank the members of the Japan Prize
Foundation, the members of the Selection Committee, and all gathered
here today.

Your Majesties, members of the Japan Prize Foundation, Ladies andGentlemen.
It is a tremendous honor to receive the prestigious Japan Prize together
with Janet Rowley, a pioneer in our field, and my friend and collaborator
Brian Druker.
In accepting this award, I also need to acknowledge my colleagues at
Novartis who contributed to the discovery and development of Imatinib.
I would especially like to mention the major contributions made by
Elisabeth Buchdunger and Juerg Zimmerman. This success story in drug
discovery, and its impact on patient’s lives, was a result of teamwork,commitment, perseverance, and of course a little luck.
The pioneering work of Nowell and Hungerford and Janet Rowley,and subsequent work from multiple academic groups in the leukemia
field, established the scientific foundation for our translational work. My
fortune in standing here today is an example of how a productive
industry-academic collaboration can impact translational research inmedicine.
Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the executives of
the Japan Prize Foundation and the members of the Selection
Committees, and the Japan Prize Foundation.
Thank you.

Presentation Ceremony

The Japan Prize Presentation Ceremony took place at the National Theatre of Japan, Tokyo, in the presence of Their Majesties
the Emperor and Empress, and with the attendance of the Prime Minister of Japan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
the President of the House of Councillors, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan, foreign ambassadors and ministers,
and about 850 notable figures including scholars, politicians, officials, business leaders and journalists.
In 2011, the Presentation Ceremony was canceled due to impact of Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster. Therefore, thisyear’s ceremony began with the introduction of last year’s laureates.
Following the opening remarks by Prof. Yoshikawa, Chairman of the Japan Prize Foundation, Dr. Komiyama, Chairman of
the Selection Committee, reported on the results of the selection and explained the reasons why the laureates were chosen, and
Dr. Nakayama, Chairman of Board of Councilors, presented the certificate of merit and the prize medal to each of the four laureates.
After the laureates' acceptance speeches, Prime Minister Noda gave a congratulatory address on behalf of the Three Branches of
the Japanese Government. The ceremony ended with a commemorative concert by the Tokyo Geidai Student Orchestra.

Laureates of the year 2012

Congratulatory addressby H. E. Mr. Noda
Prime Minister of Japan

Laureates of the year 2011
Dr. Hirano(left), Dr. Kishimoto

Opening remarksby Prof. Yoshikawa,
Chairman of the Japan
Prize Foundation

Reporting on the selection
results by Dr. Komiyama,
Chairman of the Selection
Committee

Prize presentation by
Dr. Nakayama, Chairman ofBoard of Councilors

Commemorative concert
by the Tokyo Geidai Student Orchestra

Banquet

Following the presentation ceremony, a banquet was held for the laureates at the Hotel New Otani Tokyo where it was
attended by Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan, the head of the legislative branch, foreign ambassadors andministers, along with around 350 dignitaries from various fields.
The banquet was opened by His Majesty the Emperor proposing a toast in honor of the laureates.
H. E. Mr. Hirata, the President of the House of Councillors, gave a congratulatory address. The banquet concluded withspeeches of heartfelt gratitude by the laureates.

His Majesty the Emperor engaging in a conversation with laureates

Congratulatory addressby H. E. Mr. Hirata, the President of
the House of Councillors

Her Majesty the Empress engaging in a conversation with laureates

Acknowledgment
by Dr. Rowley (right) on behalf of the group

Acknowledgment
by Dr. Sagawa

Commemorative Lectures
On the following day of the Presentation Ceremony and the Banquet, Commemorative Lectures were held in Tokyo.
The laureates of the “Healthcare and Medical Technology”field, Dr. Janet Rowley, Dr. Brian Druker and Dr. Nicholas Lydon
discussed the pathogenic mechanism of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) and their development of the molecularly
targeted drug “Imatinib” under the coordination by Dr. Hiroaki Mitsuya of Kumamoto University.
In the field of “Environment, Energy and Infrastructure”, Dr. Sagawa talked about how the world's highest performing
Nd-Fe-B type permanent magnet came to be developed and gave an easy-to-understand explanation of the magnet’s structurewith actual demonstrations.
Healthcare and Medical Technology ﬁeld

From left, Dr. Mitsuya (Coordinator),Dr. Druker, Dr. Rowley, and Dr. Lydon

Environment, Energy and Infrastructure ﬁeld

Dr. Sagawa demonstrating the power of the Magnet

Theme

T h emeSuccessful Approach Targetting
Leukemia Cells

How the World s Strongest
Neodymium Magnet Came to Exist

Dr. Rowley talked about her discovery of abnormal
chromosome 22 unique to Leukemia being caused bytranslocation with chromosome 9, and the pathogenic
mechanism of CML in which abnormal growth ofhematopoietic cells is triggered by the protein kinase
produced from the gene of the translocated chromosome 22(the Bcr-Abl gene).
Dr. Lydon, who played a major role in the drug
development, talked about the difficulties involved withfinding the right protein kinase inhibitor for CML. He
mentioned that during the early stage of the development,
finding the right protein kinase inhibitor was thought to be notso difficult because of the relatively small number of protein
kinase gene family. But as new discoveries were made, theknown protein kinase gene family expanded to a final
complement of ~500, making the search very difficult.
Dr. Druker, who made a great contribution in the clinical
trials, talked about how Imatinib was approved as atherapeutic drug in Japan in 2001 and saved the lives of many
patients. He also stressed that through the establishment ofmolecularly targeted approach in treating cancer, he willcontinue to work towards the goal of eradicating as many
types of cancer as possible.

“For a scientist, a discovery comes in many ways. WhenI was doing basic research at university, unfortunately I
was not a good researcher. However, when I began
working for a corporation and was given a research theme,
important ideas for breakthroughs came to my mind one
after another.” said Dr. Sagawa.
He also mentioned that “At the symposium in 1978,
I was inspired with an idea of widening the interatomic
distance of Iron by creating an alloy with metals of small
atomic radius such as Carbon or Boron. From this idea,
Neodymium Magnet was born and I was able to makebroad contributions to the society”.
Furthermore, Dr. Sagawa gave words of encouragement
to the young up-and-coming researchers by saying “Ascientist or researcher is a wonderful occupation, for one
is able to solve problems our society is facing by one’s
ideas”.

You can watch video of Commemorative Lectures atwww.japanprize.jp

Japan Prize Week

J A P A N

/23

4

Welcome Reception（Mon）

Courtesy Visit to the Japan Academy

Academic Round Table Discussion

Presentation Ceremony

Banquet

（Tue）

/25

4

P R I Z E

/24

4

（Wed）

4

27

（Fri）

In Katsura Imperial Villa

In Matsushita Shinshin-An

P H O T O S/

Sightseeing in Kyoto（Thu）

W E E K

/26

Commemorative Lectures

4

Fields Eligible for the 2013 Japan Prize
Areas ofPhysics, Chemistry and Engineering

Materials and Production

Background and rationale:

Discoveries and inventions of new materials with unprecedented functions as well as advanced production technologies have brought about
numerous technological innovations, thereby contributing greatly to the advancement of society.
Development of materials with new functions such as semiconductors, natural products, nano-materials and new catalysts, and also new
production technologies such as computer-aided design and manufacturing and measuring techniques have all contributed in creating highly
developed and innovative industries of today.
In order to make effective use of finite resources, protect the environment and maintain the continuous prosperity of our society, further
development of materials with new functions and epoch-making production technologies have come to be indispensable.

Achievement eligible:

The 2013 Japan Prize in the fields of “Materials and Production” is awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions tosociety by achieving momentous scientific and technological breakthroughs that improve the quality and safety of people’s lives bydesigning and developing materials with new functions, or advanced production technologies that will create new products and industries.
Areas of
Life Science, Agriculture and Medicine

Biological Production and Biological Environment

Background and rationale:

The existence of human being on Earth is completely dependent on the continuous and diverse use of biological resources. In recent years,
however, the biological environment of our planet which fosters indispensable biological resources is deteriorating rapidly.
Despite the advent of many technological innovations that have dramatically increased our food production capacity, the human race is set tooutgrow that capacity at an even greater pace.
In order to protect the precious biological environment in our global society, there is an ever growing need for development of environmental
technologies for conservation of biodiversity and creation of sustainable and environmentally-conscious biological production technologies.

Achievement eligible:

The 2013 Japan Prize in the fields of “Biological Production and Biological Environment” is awarded to individuals who have madesignificant contributions to the welfare of society by achieving momentous scientific and technological breakthroughs indevelopment of technologies that will measure, evaluate and respond to the effects of human activity on the environment, thereby
helping to protect and conserve biodiversity and biological environment, or eradicate hunger and poverty by improving biologicalproductivity of food and other useful materials.

The Japan Prize Foundation
The Japan Prize Foundation was established in 1982, with the aim of contributing to the further development ofscience and technology. In addition to recognizing outstanding achievements with the Japan Prize, the Foundation has
been promoting science and technology by hosting the "Easy-to-understand Science and Technology Seminars" andawarding Research Grants to help nurture young scientists.

Research Grants
The Foundation provides research
grants to scientists and researchers
who are under 35 years of age.
Every year, the Foundation selects
projects in the same fields as theJapan Prize and gives one million
Japanese yen (approx. US $ 12,000)
for a project. Each year, about 20
young scientists receive grants.

“Easy-to-understand Science andTechnology Seminars”

Stockholm International YouthScience Seminar (SIYSS)The Foundation hosts a series ofseminars on advanced technologies
that are being used widely in our
everyday life. The seminars aredesigned for students and the generalpublic, and experts in the related
fields explain in plain language.
Over 200 seminars have been held
across Japan since the first seminar
was held over 20 years ago.

The Foundation sends two Japanese
students to the annual StockholmInternational Youth Science Seminar,
which is held under the auspices of
the Swedish Federation of Young
Scientists with the support of theNobel Foundation. Since the program
started in 1987, about 50 students
from Japan have participated in thisevent.