Overview
- The ceremony took place on November 3 in the Matsu no Ma of the Imperial Palace, where the Emperor personally presented each medal.
- Honorees were Sadaharu Oh, Susumu Kitagawa, Kataoka Nizaemon, Yasuo Kawashima, Kazuhiko Komatsu, Junko Koshino, Nobuo Tsuji, and Hisashi Yamamoto.
- Kawashima delivered the group’s thanks after the investiture, calling the recognition a great honor.
- At a subsequent Imperial Household Agency press conference, Oh said he was truly honored and pledged to help keep baseball at the forefront in Japan, also praising the Dodgers’ World Series repeat.
- Kitagawa, this year’s Nobel chemistry laureate, and fellow chemist Yamamoto both expressed gratitude, with Yamamoto saying the award made him feel he had finally become a fully fledged researcher.