Japan, SA ties run deep

Emma Ruiters mentions in her article what SA has to offer Japan and the little the Japanese know about SA (“SA must use its noodle to boost ties, November 30). Many Japanese might be surprised to learn of SA’s outstanding scientific contributions to Japan.

In August 2017 two scientists of SA origin, Sydney Brenner (Nobel prize for medicine, 2003) and the famous physicist Jonathan Dorfan, were respectively awarded Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun 1st Class and 2nd Class for their role in establishing the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Japan’s flagship institute of science and technology.

OIST produced its first graduates in 2018 but has already been ranked the ninth best scientific research institution in the world, the only Japanese institution in the top 10.

Recently a statue of Brenner was unveiled at OIST, the only such statue at the institution. Dorfan is now president emeritus.

Last year UCT applied mathematics professor Doug Butterworth was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd Class. Through his mathematical modelling, he helped save Japan’s fish stocks, particularly the bluefin tuna, which is prized for sushi.

Then there is Max Theiler and the tragic story of the famous Japanese medical scientist Noguchi

Hideyo, who died trying to find a yellow fever vaccine. Noguchi incorrectly thought yellow fever was caused by a bacterium. Theiler realised that it was caused by a virus and developed the vaccine for which he won the Nobel prize, the only Nobel awarded for a virus vaccine. Today Noguchi is a Japanese scientific hero with his face on the ¥1,000 note.

Finally, we have SA’s famously unpatented coastal protection concrete blocks, the dolosse, which are found all along Japan’s coastline.

David P Kramer Killarney