"Japanese, Japanese, Japanese, ten for the big and five for the small..."
In early October every year Japan gets excited. "Will Japan win the Nobel Prize this time?" is the headline in all the media.
There are orgies of speculation about who might win the prize. And the announcement is awaited with bated breath. If someone Japanese wins, the country bubbles over with joy. If not, dejection sets in. It's the same every year.
So far Japan has won 12 prizes. In March 2001, the Government set a target of 30 laureates in 50 years. Japan counts the Nobel Prize as the most distinguished in the world. It has a long tradition, the selection is fair, no names are ever leaked. A small country like Sweden awards this fantastic distinction. The Japanese have great respect for Alfred Nobel, the great inventor.
I think that of all the countries in the world, Japan is the one that gets most excited by the Nobel Prize. When two Japanese, Tanaka in Chemistry and Koshiba in Physics, won the prize in 2002, around 100 journalists invaded Stockholm reporting on anything and everything, from what the laureates had for breakfast to their bedtimes.
There was great astonishment for Tanaka especially, who wasn't an academic and a professor but only an engineer at an ordinary company. When I phoned Kyodo News immediately after the announcement and passed on the news that Tanaka was the Chemistry laureate, there was complete silence and people started mumbling: Who the hell is Tanaka? And yet he won the illustrious prize. It was as if the whole of Japan had been struck by lightning. People were asking how the Nobel committee could know about him when he was unknown to the Japanese. People decided that the Nobel Prize committee had shown great courage in selecting such an unknown person to receive the prestigious prize. It enhanced the reputation of the Nobel Prize in Japan even more.
Many Japanese visit the Stadshuskällaren restaurant, whose menu includes dishes from the year's Nobel banquet, so they can sample what Tanaka ate. And it makes them happy.
The Nobel Prize helps to promote research in chemistry, physics and medicine, fields which do not otherwise attract much attention. The proudest day of the year for Sweden and the Swedish people is 10 December.