TOKYO (AFP) — Prime Minister Taro Aso on Wednesday hailed Japan's haul of Nobel prizes after a Japanese won in chemistry, the day after three other Japanese-born scientists won in physics.
"Honestly, I am surprised to see so many as four Japanese win in one year," Aso told reporters. "It's really good."
Osamu Shimomura of Japan and the US duo Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien on Wednesday won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for a fluorescent protein derived from a jellyfish that has become a vital tool in research.
A day before, the Nobel jury awarded the physics prize to Japan's Toshihide Maskawa and Makoto Kobayashi, along with Yoichiro Nambu, a Japanese-born American at the University of Chicago.
Shimomura also lives in the United States where he was a researcher at Boston University.
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