is a Japanese

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

, known for his pioneer research on

Dementia with Lewy bodies Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a type of dementia characterized by changes in sleep, behavior, cognition, movement, and regulation of automatic bodily functions. Memory loss is not always an early symptom. The disease worsens over time ...

(DLB), which he first described.

Life

Kosaka was born in

Ise, Mie , formerly called Ujiyamada (宇治山田), is a city in central Mie Prefecture, on the island of Honshū, Japan. Ise is home to Ise Grand Shrine, the most sacred Shintō shrine in Japan. The city has a long-standing title – Shinto (神都) ...

, and completed his M.D. in 1965 from

Kanazawa University Kanazawa University ( ja, 金沢大学, Kanazawa Daigaku, abbreviated to ja, 金大, Kindai) is a Japanese national university in the city of Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture. Founded in 1862, it was chartered as a university in 194 ...

. He was appointed as a professor of psychiatry at Yokohama City University School of Medicine in 1991, before becoming a director of Yokohama City University Medical Center in 1995. He has been a director of Medical Care Court Clinic in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

since 2011. He received the 2013

Asahi Prize The , established in 1929, is an award presented by the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'' and Asahi Shimbun Foundation to honor individuals and groups that have made outstanding accomplishments in the fields of arts and academics and have greatl ...

for discovering

Contribution

In 1976, Kosaka described the concept of

for the first time. Two years later, he reported three autopsied cases of Dementia with Lewy bodies. The term Dementia with Lewy bodies was proposed at the first international workshop held in 1995, and is now in common use.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kosaka, Kenji Japanese psychiatrists Japanese biologists Japanese neuroscientists Yokohama City University faculty 1939 births Living people People from Ise, Mie Lewy body dementia