Japanese scientists awared 10 Nobel peace prizes in the last decade, six in chemistry & four in physics

"The people who win today usually did their prize-worthy work 20 to 50 years ago. So it has been with most of the 10 Nobels awarded to Japanese scientists in the past decade, six in chemistry and four in physics. Those Nobels suggest that during the “near-totalitarian” decades, at state universities supposedly crippled by Confucianist hierarchies, Japanese scientists were actually doing some valuable basic research."


Source: What Nobel Prizes Say About Japan
October 7, 2010
WSJ
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/10/07/what-nobel-prizes-say-about-japan/