The Order of Culture, the nation's top award for cultural fields, will be given to five people this year, the government announced Tuesday.
The five are scriptwriter Sugako Hashida, 95, Japanese literature scholar Jun Kubota, 87, doll artisan Sayume Okuda, 83, solid-state physicist Jun Kondo, 90, and sculptor Kiichi Sumikawa, 89.
Twenty people, including film director Daisaku Kimura, 81; Koichi Suzuki, 74, who has made efforts on culture promotion; and manzai comedian Kiyoshi Nishikawa, 74, were selected as Persons of Cultural Merit.
According to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, which handles these awards, it is the first time for the fields of script writing, doll craft and solid-state physics to be awarded the Order of Culture. As for Persons of Cultural Merit, nine areas including applied mathematics, filmmaking, broadcasting, musical culture promotion, manzai comedy, mechatronics and developmental genetics, were picked for the first time.
The award ceremony for the Order of Culture will take place on Nov. 3 at the Imperial Palace, while the ceremony for Persons of Cultural Merit will be held on Nov. 4 at The Okura Tokyo hotel. To avoid the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus, there will be no tea ceremony at the Imperial Palace for either set of award recipients.
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