Tokiharu Abe
Career. Tokiharu Abe was born in Tabata, Tokyo, emigrated to Taiwan with his family in 1919, graduated from Taipei High School and was admitted to Tokyo Imperial University. He went on to School of Science of Tokyo Imperial University.　 After studying at School of Science, he became a research student of zoology class at Tokyo Imperial University and was appointed as an agriculture and forestry engineer of Fisheries Experiment Station of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in 1947.　 He received Ronbun Hakase, namely doctoral degree without finishing doctoral course study, from University of Tokyo by the thesis entitled  “日本海近海産マフグ科魚類の分類学的研究 [The taxonomic study on the family fish of Takifugu of the sea around Japan]” in 1952. He became senior researcher at Tokai Regional Fisheries Research Institute and retired in 1977. He worked for the University Museum of the University of Tokyo. He became the superintendent of Osakana Fukyu Sentā Shiryōkan (Tsukiji Fish Information Center and Museum). Abe became notable for his taxonomic studies on the pufferfish (Tetraodontidae, Teleostei) from East Asia, in particular the genus Takifugu which he first described in 1949. He described further species like "Sagamichthys abei", "Centroscyllium kamoharai" and "Fugu obscurus". Species like "Tetraodon abei" and  Chaunax abei were named in his honour. Abe became honorary member of Japanese Society of Systematic Zoology in 1991 and was also an honorary foreign member of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. In 1996, he died from a cerebral hemorrhage in a hospital in Tokyo.