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PICES Press Vol. 22, No. 2

Obituary – Dr. Toshiro Saino
by Sanae Chiba
A few months have quickly passed
since we lost our colleague, friend
and mentor, Dr. Toshiro Saino. He
passed away on April 17th inYokohama, Japan, just one week
after the cherry blossom season
ended. In Buddhism, one mustcomplete a seven-week journey toreach the Heavens after he/she has
left this side of the world. Everyweek, a task is given, such as crossing the river by paying
special coins to the boatman (so we put a special traveler’sburial clothes on him/her with those coins in its wallet).
The fifth week is the climax, when one must pass thequalification interview with the Emperor of Hell. I imagine
how Saino-san took that interview, and am sure he could
outcompete the Emperor in debate quite confidently. Now I
can see him enjoying discussions with past famousscientists in history far up there, of course sipping
Heaven’s best whiskey, sake or whatever…. I just cannot
help but imagine it that way.

profiling buoy system, aiming to make possible the semi-realtime observation of primary productivity. After moving from
Nagoya University to JAMSTEC in 2008, he led time-series
observation projects using the profiling buoy system, withone deployed in the subarctic and the other in the subtropicalwestern North Pacific.

Saino-san was probably most familiar to the recent PICES
community as the Co-Chair of the Section on Carbon andClimate. He was Japan’s leading biogeochemist and ocean
color scientist who had been promoting a number ofdomestic and international programs in these areas. He was amember of the JGOFS Scientific Steering Committee
starting in the 1990s and served on its Executive Committee
until the program ended in the mid-2000s. Starting his
science career with studies of nitrogen fixation physiology ofTrichodesmium in the late 1970s at the University of Tokyo,
he made important contributions on a wide range of subjects
concerning the ocean nitrogen cycle, such as development ofa stable isotope technique for measuring nitrogen fixation in
the sea and methods for estimating nitrate and new
production from remote sensing. More recently, he launched
the project for development of an ocean productivity

Testing the Ocean Productivity Profiling System.

I personally came to know Saino-san when I was agraduate student of the Tokyo University of Fisheries.
When I applied for a Postdoc position at JAMSTEC, hewas one of the interviewers at that very scary, serious
interview session. I successfully got the post and Saino-sanbecame my boss, who was dignified but very approachable.
We worked together on the retrospective analysis of longterm ecosystem change over the North Pacific by collecting
and re-analyzing historical plankton samples and data suchas the Odate Collection that the Fisheries Research Agency
possessed. He was an advocate for the Odate Project, bywhich our understanding of marine ecosystem responses inthe western North Pacific to climatic forcing, such as thePacific Decadal Oscillation, was greatly improved.

Group photo of the Section on Carbon and Climate meeting at PICES-2011 in Khabarovsk, Russia. Left to right: Dong-Jin Kang, Jim Christian (S-CCCo-Chairman), Pavel Tishchenko, Alex Kozyr, Toshiro Saino (S-CC Co-Chairman), Toru Suzuki, Akihiko Murata and Minhai Dai.

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Saino-san with Drs. Shuichi Watanabe and Toru Suzuki at PICES-2002.

PICES Press Vol. 22, No. 2
Saino-san always expanded his scientific interests toward
new perspectives and methods whenever he found it
challenging. He was a fully internationally active
oceanographer who conducted his projects in the global
context, loved to work with international colleagues, andencouraged others to go global, as ocean science is global.
That is why he had so many good friends all over the world.
Throughout his professor career at the University of Tokyoand Nagoya University, he played a role as a mentor ofmany capable young scientists, among which were excellent
overseas students who are now world leading
oceanographers. It was really impressive that there were somany messages of condolence from overseas at his funeral.
I must also mention that he was a supporter of womenscientists in Japan, where the ceiling is often visible rather
than just made of glass.

Saino-san earning the name “in-Saino”, with Alex Kozyr and Alex
Bychkov during a JGOFS N. Pacific Synthesis Group meeting, 2003.

Besides science, I should write here about his lovablecharacter. He had a large collection of rhinoceros goods in his
office because he related its Japanese name “sai” to himself.
On celebration of Saino-san’s Japanese Oceanographic SocietyAward, one of us even tried to find a gift of a rhino crystal
figure in the flagship shop of Swarovski in Vienna where heattended the EGU meeting. He insisted that he desperately
needed a rhino, and ended up having thoroughly confused theshop clerk who suggested an elephant and other animals
because they had no rhino products and did not understandwhy it must be a rhino. That anecdote always makes me smile.
Saino-san was known as a great host at his home BBQ parties.
Yet not so many know that he was a highly skilled Kendo(Japanese fencing) player; the 4th grade is only given to, well,“Samurai-level” competitors. Indeed, he was a Samurai while
he was fighting with cancer, brave and positive, and worked
hard as always even in such bad condition. Also, he was ascientist, who thoughtfully did the research, critically analyzed
the symptoms, and tried new treatments. We believed he could
have pulled through.

Saino-san and Fei Chai enjoying dinner with wine, and watching thesunset on a Maine lake, 2006.

Saino-san leaves behind his wife Fumiko Saino, a daughter,two sons and two grandchildren. And a third grandchild isexpected soon. Saino-san has left us, but he sowed a lot ofseeds of ocean scientists over the world. I end this obituarywith my favorite quote of Oscar Wilde,“To live is the rarest thing in the world, most people justexist, that is all.”Saino-san lived.

Invited speakers, Drs. Toshiro Saino and Michael Behrenfeld,PICES-2007.

I thank Drs. Jim Christian, Joaquim Goes, Takashi Ishimaru,Toru Suzuki and Fei Chai, who shared information and photos
for this article.

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