| Name | Category | Year | Motivation |
|---|
| Isamu Akasaki | Physics | 2014 | "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources" |
| Hiroshi Amano | Physics | 2014 | "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources" |
| Leo Esaki | Physics | 1973 | "for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively" |
| Kenichi Fukui | Chemistry | 1981 | "for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions" |
| Tasuku Honjo | Medicine | 2018 | Research on cancer therapy by inhibiting negative immune reactions |
| Kazuo Ishiguro | Literature | 2017 | "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world" |
| Takaaki Kajita | Physics | 2015 | "for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass" |
| Yasunari Kawabata | Literature | 1968 | "for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind" |
| Makoto Kobayashi | Physics | 2008 | "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature" |
| Syukuro Manabe | Physics | 2021 | "for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming." |
| Masatoshi Koshiba | Physics | 2002 | "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos" |
| Toshihide Maskawa | Physics | 2008 | "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature" |
| Shuji Nakamura | Physics | 2014 | "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources" |
| Yoichiro Nambu | Physics | 2008 | "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics" |
| Ryoji Noyori | Chemistry | 2001 | "for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions" |
| Kenzaburo Oe | Literature | 1994 | "who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today" |
| Yoshinori Ohsumi | Medicine | 2016 | "for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy" |
| Satoshi Ōmura | Medicine | 2015 | "for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites" |
| Eisaku Sato | Peace | 1974 | |
| Osamu Shimomura | Chemistry | 2008 | "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP" |
| Hideki Shirakawa | Chemistry | 2000 | "for the discovery and development of conductive polymers" |
| Akira Suzuki | Chemistry | 2010 | "for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis" |
| Koichi Tanaka | Chemistry | 2002 | "for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules" |
| Sin-Itiro Tomonaga | Physics | 1965 | "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles" |
| Susumu Tonegawa | Medicine | 1987 | "for his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity" |
| Shinya Yamanaka | Medicine | 2012 | "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent" |
| Akira Yoshino | Chemistry | 2019 | inventor of lithium-ion batteries |
| Hideki Yukawa | Physics | 1949 | "for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces" |