1.
Noguchi Hideyo, bacteriologist
A self-made scientist who overcame poverty and a childhood hand injury to research syphilis and yellow fever internationally, dying of yellow fever himself while researching it in Africa. A model of perseverance taught to schoolchildren, and the face of the ¥1,000 note from 2004 to 2024.
野口英世は細菌学者だった。
Noguchi Hideyo was a bacteriologist.
His childhood struggle after a severe hand burn, and the poverty he studied his way out of, made him a standard example of perseverance in Japanese school textbooks.
Common expressions
- 野口英世のように努力する: to work as hard as Noguchi Hideyo did (said admiringly)
Cultural note
He researched syphilis and yellow fever, eventually dying of yellow fever while studying it in Ghana. His portrait appeared on the ¥1,000 note from 2004 to 2024, when he was replaced by 北里柴三郎 in the redesign.