Over several months, the Foundation was visited by no less than three delegations from Japan, representing what was to become the Japan Prize. Each question was analyzed in minutest detail, and then my colleagues and I answered all the intricate queries, both orally and in writing. So when the last delegation, led by a venerable former Foreign Minister, was about to leave the Nobel building, and we were politely bowing our farewells, the Minister apologized for the intrusive and possibly impolite questions he had been obliged to pose. Members of his delegation, he continued, were exceedingly surprised by the openness we had shown and the generosity with which we responded to all their questions and desires. Then, precisely to the point, he asked if we were not worried about competition from the Japan Prize.
Nothing can instantaneously create a tradition like Nobel's.
The old Foreign Minister traveled home to Tokyo with his delegation, and when the first Japan Prize was awarded in the following year, the prize went to the Nobel Foundation as thanks for what Nobel means to science. It was a great honor and encouragement to have been able to receive the prize in a festive ceremony in Tokyo, a ceremony which was a beautiful Japanese version of our own. It seemed as well a reward of having been so open and willing to receive the delegations from Japan. President Mitterrand plays politics Nonetheless, a few years later, we maintained a somewhat lower pitch. The Nobel Foundation was invited to play the role of co-host, but we politely turned down the invitation.