Swedish Embassy Hosts Tokyo Reception to Honor This Year’s Japanese Nobel Laureates

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:00 JST, October 14, 2025

The two Japanese winners of this year’s Nobel prizes attended a reception hosted by the Swedish Embassy at a hotel in Minato Ward, Tokyo, on Monday. The laureates are University of Osaka specially appointed professor Shimon Sakaguchi, 74, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and Kyoto University distinguished professor Susumu Kitagawa, 74, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The prize ceremony will be held on Dec. 10 in Stockholm. The embassy invited the two laureates to the reception in Tokyo, which was held in honor of Swedish Crown Princess Victoria’s visit to Japan, to celebrate the announcements of the prizes. Crown Princess Victoria, who expressed surprise that there were two winners from Japan, said she looks forward to seeing them again in December and took photos with the two.

“It is a tremendous honor,” Sakaguchi told reporters.

Kitagawa said, “Because I am here with Professor Sakaguchi, whom I’ve known for many years, I feel relaxed.”