2 Japanese 2025 Nobel Prize Winners Visit Museum in Stockholm, Take Part in Tradition of Autographing Chairs

By Naomi Nagao / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

16:46 JST, December 7, 2025

STOCKHOLM — Shimon Sakaguchi and Susumu Kitagawa, 2025 Nobel Prize winners, visited the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm on Saturday, where they took part in the tradition of autographing chairs in the museum.

Sakaguchi, 74, a distinguished honorary professor of the University of Osaka, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and Kitagawa, 74, a distinguished professor of Kyoto University, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

It is tradition that, rather than sign the museum’s visitor registry book, prize winners of that year autograph the underside of chairs, as well as donate items related to their work.

They were given a tour by museum officials and wrote their autographs in kanji.

As donations, Sakaguchi offered a volume of “Hataraku Saibo” (Cells at Work), a popular manga series featuring personified regulatory T cells, which were his scientific discover. Regulatory T cells curb excessive immune reactions.

Kitagawa donated samples of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which can store and release various kinds of gases, according to museum officials.