Person of Cultural Merit
For his great achievements, Numa was awarded numerous honours and awards including, most outstandingly, the Japan Academy Prize in 1985. He was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1986, as a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina in 1990, and as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in 1991. He was selected as a Person of Cultural Merit by the Government of Japan in 1991.