Person of Cultural Merit

A person with special cultural merits (Japanese文化 功 労 者, Bunka Kōrōsha ) is called a person who has made outstanding services and very considerable extent to the development and progress of the culture of Japan. The appointment of the person with special cultural merits made ​​by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and is a significant ceremony in Japan. The award is granted for life and it is with a pension payment in the amount of 3.5 million yen (about 34,000 euros, 2011) joined a year. The total expenditure for these pension payments in 2009 amounted to 800 million yen. Payment and her height governs pension law for persons with special cultural merits (文化 功 労 者 年金 法, Bunka Kōrōsha Nenkinhō ). The sum of 3.5 million yen in 1982, laid down in the implementing provisions of the Pension Act (文化 功 労 者 年金 法 施行 令, Bunka Kōrōsha Nenkinhō Shikōrei ).

The award has been awarded since 1951. Every year about 15 people, some of them awarded with the higher-ranked Order of Culture. A selection committee, composed of university professors and writers, makes a pre- selection of candidates, from which, in turn, the Minister determines the Laureten. The announcement of the winners are shared with the announcement of the laureates for the Japanese Order of Culture on 3 November, the day of the culture. This award takes some years not only the areas of art and science, but also film, arts and crafts, sport, etc. The nationality of the award recipients is not an exclusion criterion; date of the prize was awarded to three non-Japanese: 1999 to Marius Jansen Berthus, 2002 Donald Keene and 2010 Wáng zhenzhi ( Sadaharu Oh).

By November 2008 711 people were excellent.

Full list of people with particular cultural merits

1951-1959

1960-1969

1970-1979

1980-1989

1990-1999

2000-2009

• 2000: Ishii Yoneo ( historian ) - Yoshida Tamao (puppeteer ) - Kawai Hayao ( psychologist ) - Shigeyama Sensaku ( Kyōgen performer ) - Shirakawa Hideki (chemist) - Tanaka Ikko (Graphic ) - Tanabe Seiko ( writer ) - Tomizawa Junichi ( pharmacologist ) - Nomiyama gyoji (painter) - Hatanaka Ryosuke (baritone ) - Hayami Akira (economist ) - Honjo Tasuku (Medic ) - Masumoto Tsuyoshi ( physicists, materials scientists ) - Matsuo Toshio (painter) - Yamane Yuzo ( art historian ) - Yokobori Takeo ( mechanical Engineering )

• 2001: Nakamura Jakuemon IV (actor) - Akiyama Ken ( literary scholar ) - Inoki Masamichi ( political scientist ) - Sadako Ogata ( political scientist, diplomat ) - Seiji Ozawa (Conductor) - Kawatake Toshio ( theater studies ) - Kishi Yoshito (chemist) - Kyogoku Junichi ( political scientist ) - Makoto Kobayashi ( physicist ) - Nagata Shigekazu (molecular biologist ) - Naruse Eizan ( calligrapher ) - Hieda Kazuho (painter) - Masukawa Toshihide ( physicist ) - Akira Miyoshi (Composer) - Yasuoka Shotaro ( writer )

• 2002: Kono Taeko (actress ) - Ohira Santo ( calligrapher ) - Odashima Yushi ( Anglist ) - Gokura Kazuko (painter) - Shionoya, Yuichi (economist ) - Shimada, Hiroshi (dancer ) - Tanaka Koichi (chemist) - TSUNEWAKI Koichiro ( geneticist ) - Yoji Totsuka ( physicist ) - Donald Keene - Akira Tonomura ( physicist ) - Kotsura Beichū III ( storyteller ) - Nakamura Shinya (sculptor ) - Ōta Tomoko ( geneticist ) - Honma Nagayo ( political scientist ) - Sori Yanagi (Product Designer)

• 2003: Ando Tadao (architect) - Iijima Sumio ( physicist ) - Itagaki Yuzo ( cultural theorist ) - Itō Kiyoshi ( mathematician ) - Ifukube Akira (Composer) - Iwata Yasuo (philosopher ) - Yonekawa Toshiko ( koto player) - Endō Minoru (Composer ) - Kondō Jun ( physicist ) - Yasuharu Suematsu ( International Student Advisor ) - Haruo Sugano (Medic ) - Tanuma Take Yoshi (photographer) - Sakata Tōjūrō IV (Kabuki Actor ) - Koichi Bai ( lawyer) - Sono Ayako ( writer )

• 2004: Isamu Akasaki ( Electrical Engineering ) - Arima Akito ( physicist ) - Nobuo Ito (architect, preservationist ) - Inoue Hisashi ( writer ) - OHI Chozaemon ( potter ) - Shiimada Shozo (painter) - Shikai Yōichi ( economist ) - Etsuko Takano ( filmmaker ) - Masatoshi Takeichi ( biologist ) - Nakanishi Susumu ( comparatist ) - Yukio Ninagawa (Director) - Yujiro Hayami (economist ) - Hiraiwa Yumie ( playwright, actress) - Yanagita Mitsuhiro (molecular biologist ) - Yamada Yoji (Director)

• 2005: Uchida Mitsuko ( pianist ) - Kaya Koji (chemist) - Takemoto Sumitayū ( reciter Puppet Theatre ) - Hanayagi Toshinami (dancer ) - Suzuki Akinori (chemist) - Takashina Shuji ( art historian ) - Tatehata Kakuzo (sculptor ) - Tanaka Ikuzō (chemist) - Shigeo Nagashima (baseball player) - Fujita Daigoro ( Noh master ) - Tomoo Masaki ( pharmacologist ) - Mikazuki Akira ( lawyer) - Mitani Taichiro ( political scientist ) - Mori Sumio ( poet ) - Wakita Haruko ( historian)

• 2006: Itō Hidesato ( physicist ) - Takakura Ken (actor) - Kanemori Hiro ( seismologist ) - Kuriyama Masayoshi ( opera director) - Kurokawa Kisho (architect) - Shiba Yoshinobu ( historian ) - Takagi Seikaku ( calligrapher ) - Asakura Setsu (artist ) - Nakanishi Shigetada - Nakamura Shikan VII (Kabuki Actor ) - Takashi Negishi (economist ) - Maruya Saiichi ( writer ) - Matsubara Ken'ichi (molecular biologist ) - Mori Ken'ichi ( International Student Advisor ) - Yamazaki Masakazu ( playwright )

• 2007: Iwatsuki Kunio ( botanist ) - Ebisawa Bin ( musicologist ) - Okutani Hiroshi (painter) - Oda Shigeru ( lawyer) - Karashima Noboru ( historian ) - Kawashima Yasunaru (Medic ) - Kunitake Toyoki (chemist) - Sakurai, Hideki (chemist) - Nanami Shiono ( writer ) - Akio Suzuki ( surgeon ) - Suzuki Chikuhaku (painter) - Tanigawa Ken'ichi ( cultural anthropologist ) - Hisao Domoto (painter) - Tatsuya Nakadai (actor) - Hoshino Eiichi ( lawyer)

• 2008: Asashima Makoto ( biologist ) - Akira Isogai (chemist) - Ichiyanagi Toshi (composer, pianist ) - Okuda Sayume ( artisan ) - Kaneko Tota ( poet ) - Hiroyuki Sakaki ( Electrical Engineering ) - Koichi Shimoda ( physicist ) - Osamu Shimomura ( biochemist ) - Kiichi Sumikawa (sculptor ) - Ken'ichi Tominaga ( sociologist ) - Makoto Nagao ( International Student Advisor ) - Nishida Tatsuo ( linguist ) - Nomura Manzo ( Noh master ) - Funamura Tōru (Composer) - Maki Asami ( ballerina, choreographer ) - Nakamura Tomijuro

• 2009: Shizuo Akira ( immunologist ) - Shigeo Iwasawa (painter) - Tokiko Iwatani ( writer, translator ) - Katayama Kurōemon IX ( Noh Actor ) - Kawada Junzo ( anthropologist ) - Yayoi Kusama (artist ) - Yoshihide Kozai ( astronomer ) - Shoji Kojima (flamenco dancer) - Hiroshi Shiono ( lawyer) - Masahiro Sugiura (molecular biologist ) - Taniguchi Tadatsugu ( biologist ) - Taiho Kōki ( sumo wrestler ) - Yoshida Minosuke (puppeteer ) - Miyao Tomiko ( writer ) - Toshimitsu Yamazaki ( physicist )

2010 - 2019

• 2010: Ichikawa Ennosuke III (Kabuki actor) - Sadaharu Oh (baseball player and manager ) - Kazushi Ōno (Conductor) - Yasuo Tanaka ( astronomer ) - Nakanichi Junko ( engineer) - Nakano Mitsutoshi ( literary scholar ) - Nakamura Minoru (lawyer, writer ) - Akira Fujishima (chemist) - Furutani Soin ( calligrapher ) - Eiko Hosoe - Koya Matsuo ( lawyer) - Shigeru Mizuki ( mangaka ) - Shin'ya Yamanaka (Medic ) - Yoshinaga Sayuri (actress )

• 2011: Iokibe Makoto ( political scientist, historian ) - Imai Masayuki ( potter ) - Akira Endō ( biochemist ) - Otaki Hideji (actor) - Katagiri Yōichi ( literary scholar ) - Kuroiwa Tsuneyoshi - Kaga Otohiko ( writer ) - Shiba Sukeyasu (musician ) - Sugano Takuo ( Electrical Engineering ) - Kohei Tamao (chemist) - Kentaro Hashimoto (sculptor ) - Hibino Koho ​​( calligrapher ) - Mōri Kazuko ( politician) - Masao Yamaguchi ( anthropologist ) - Yokomichi Mario ( Noh researchers director)

• 2012: Asao Naohiro ( historian ) - Amari Shun'ichi ( mathematician ) - Anno Mitsumasa ( Illustrator ) - Iimori Taijiro (Conductor) - Satoshi Omura ( biochemist ) - Okano Shun'ichirō ( football player) - Hiroshi Kaneko ( lawyer) - Take Hiroko Nishi ( writer ) - Seiji Tsutsumi (businessman, author ) - Nakaji Yujin (painter) - Atsuhiro Nishida ( astrophysicist ) - Beppu Teruhiko ( biochemist ) - Matsumoto Koshiro IX. ( Kabukischauspieler ) - Hayao Miyazaki (director) - Keiji Morokuma (chemist)

• 2013: Uemura Atsushi (painter - Nihonga ) - Okano Hirohiko ( poet ) - Kubota Jun ( literary scholar ) - Sakaki Yoshiyuki (molecular biologist ) - Tsutsumi Tsuyoshi ( cellist ) - Nakai Hisao ( Translator ) - Hirokawa, Nobutaka (molecular biologist ) - Maki Fumihiko (architect ) - Fujio Masuoka ( Electrical Engineering ) - Tetsuro Matsuzawa ( animal psychologist ) - Yanagita Toshio ( biophysicist ) - Toshio Yamagishi ( social psychologist ) - Yamase Shoin (musicians, Koto player) - Tadao Yoshikawa ( historian ) - Yoshimasu Gozo ( singer)