are medals awarded by the

Government of Japan The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, c ...

. They are awarded to individuals who have done meritorious deeds and also to those who have achieved excellence in their field of work. The Medals of Honor were established on December 7, 1881, and were first awarded the following year. Several expansions and amendments have been made since then. The medal design for all six types are the same, bearing the stylized characters on a gilt central disc surrounded by a silver ring of

cherry blossom A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally ...

s on the obverse; only the colors of the ribbon differ. If for some reason an individual were to receive a second medal of the same ribbon colour, then a second medal is not issued but rather a new bar is added to their current medal. The Medals of Honor are awarded twice each year, on April 29 (the birthday of the

Shōwa Emperor Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

) and November 3 (the birthday of the Meiji Emperor).

Types

Red ribbon

First awarded in 1882. Awarded to individuals who have risked their own lives to save the lives of others.

Green ribbon

First awarded in 1882. Originally awarded ''"to children, grandchildren, wives and servants for remarkable acts of

piety Piety is a virtue which may include religious devotion or spirituality. A common element in most conceptions of piety is a duty of respect. In a religious context piety may be expressed through pious activities or devotions, which may vary among ...

; and to individuals who, through their diligence and perseverance while engaging in their professional activities, became public role models"''. Changed social values after World War II had resulted in the conferment of this medal being suspended after 1950; since 1955 it has been replaced to some extent by the revived Medal with Yellow Ribbon (see below). However, in 2003 the Medal with Green Ribbon was revived as an award to morally remarkable individuals who have actively taken part in serving society.

Yellow ribbon

First awarded in 1887 (later abolished); revived in 1955. Awarded to individuals who, through their diligence and perseverance while engaging in their professional activities, became public role models.

Purple ribbon

First awarded in 1955. Awarded to individuals who have contributed to academic and artistic developments, improvements and accomplishments.

Blue ribbon

First awarded in 1882. Awarded to individuals who have made significant achievements in the areas of public welfare or

public service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

Dark blue ribbon

First awarded in 1919. Awarded to individuals who have made exceptionally generous financial contributions for the well-being of the public.

Select recipients

Red

Samuel Robinson Samuel Robinson may refer to: * Samuel Robinson (1666–1729), member of Parliament for Cricklade, England * Samuel Robinson (politician) (1738–1813), Vermont political and military leader * Samuel Robinson (industrialist) (1794–1884), English i ...

* Yan Jun, a People's Republic of China citizen who saved a Japanese child in September 2013 * Anuj Raj Karki, a Nepalese citizen who saved a Japanese girl lying unconscious on a railway track.

Green

Ryōtarō Sugi (born 14 August 1944, Kobe) is a Japanese singer and actor. He is the father of actor Jundai Yamada. He appeared in ''Sukima Kaze'', which sold over a million copies. His acting credits include 18 films. On television, he specialized in ''jid ...

Torakusu Yamaha was a Japanese businessman and entrepreneur known as the founder of the Yamaha Corporation. Yamaha was the first Japanese manufacturer of the reed organ and established Nippon Gakki Co Ltd in Hamamatsu to produce organs and other musical inst ...

Yellow

* Ken Ono *

Hiroshi Maeda is a professional Japanese stunt man and suit actor from Kōchi Prefecture who is best known for portraying the Red Ranger in most of the ''Power Rangers'' series as well as the Tyranno Ranger in the 1992 ''Super Sentai'' series ''Kyōryū Senta ...

* Noguchi Naohiko *

Hiroshi Tsukakoshi is a common masculine Japanese given name. It can also be transliterated as Hirosi. Possible writings Hiroshi can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *浩, "meaning" *汎 *弘, *宏, *寛, *洋, *博, *博一, *博司, ...

* Hisashi Suzuki *

Mitsugu Shibata Mitsugu (written: , or in hiragana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese sumo wrestler *, Japanese World War II flying ace *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese photographer *, pen-name of Kanegai Hi ...

Purple

Osamu Akimoto is a Japanese manga artist from Katsushika, Tokyo. He is best known for his long-running comedy series '' KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops'', which was continuously published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' for 40 years from 1976 to 2016. With 1,960 chapt ...

Yasushi Akimoto is a Japanese record producer, lyricist, and television writer, best known for creating and producing some of Japan's top idol groups, Onyanko Club and the AKB48 franchise. Total sales of the singles he has written exceed 100 million copies, maki ...

* Toshiko AkiyoshiJapan Foundation – Toshiko Akiyoshi
*

Hideaki Anno is a Japanese animator, filmmaker and actor. He is best known for creating the anime series ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' (1995)''.'' His style is defined by his postmodernist approach and the extensive portrayal of characters' thoughts and emotio ...

* Shizuka Arakawa *

Chieko Asakawa (b. 1958) is a blind Japanese computer scientist, known for her work at IBM Research – Tokyo in accessibility.. A Netscape browser plug-in she developed, the IBM Home Page Reader, became the most widely used web-to-speech system available. She ...

* Kinji Fukasaku *

Moto Hagio is a Japanese manga artist. Regarded for her contributions to ''shōjo'' manga ( manga aimed at young and adolescent women), Hagio is considered the most significant artist in the demographic and among the most influential manga artists of a ...

* Yuzuru Hanyu * Machiko Hasegawa * Joe Hisaishi *

Sayuri Ishikawa is a Japanese enka singer who made her professional debut in 1973. With a career nearing five decades, she is one of the most-recognized and successful enka singers in history. Ishikawa is a popular contestant on the annual NHK ''Kōhaku Uta Gas ...

* Chika Kuroda *

Keisuke Kuwata is a Japanese multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and frontman for the Southern All Stars, as well of his own solo band, the Kuwata band. He has also done a significant amount of scoring music for films. He went to Aoyama Gakuin Universit ...

* Akihiro Maeta * Takashi Matsumoto * Miyuki Nakajima * Eiichi Nakamura * Koichi Nakano *

Hitoshi Narita Hitoshi Narita is a Japanese naval architect, researcher, businessman, and an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng). For a time, Narita was one of the Managing Directors of Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co. in th ...

* Tetsuya Noda Chronological report of Japan's Art Yearbook by Independent Administrative Institution National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, Tokyo) *

Hideyuki Okano Hideyuki Okano ( ja, 岡野栄之) (born 26 January 1959 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese physiology professor and the current dean of Keio University School of Medicine. He is also the team leader of the Laboratory for Marmoset Neural Architecture ...

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, animator and film director. He is best known as the creator of '' Akira'', in terms of both the original 1982 manga series and the 1988 animated film adaptation. He was decorated a ''Chevalier'' of th ...

* Shoichi Ozawa * Takao Saito *

Hiroyuki Sasaki is a Japanese geneticist known for contributing to clarify epigenetic regulations during gametogenesis and embryogenesis through investigation of genomic imprinting as a model. He participates in the International Human Epigenome Consortium HEC ...

* Takashi Shimura *

Yasuharu Suematsu (born 1932) is a researcher and educator in optical communication technology. His research has included the development of Dynamic Single Mode Semiconductor Lasers for actuation and the development of high-capacity, long-distance optical fiber c ...

* Taihō Kōki * Rumiko Takahashi *

Keiko Takemiya is a Japanese manga artist and the former president of Kyoto Seika University. Career Keiko Takemiya (or Takemiya Keiko) is included in the Year 24 Group, a term coined by academics and critics to refer to a group of female authors in the ea ...

* * Mitsuo TsukaharaHonor awarded 2009 (Tokyo Prefecture)
*

Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi (born July 28, 1942 in Tokyo) is a Japanese cellist. He started to study music under the tutorship of Hideo Saito, founder of the Tokyo Conservatory."Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi", Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Tsutsumi made his debut as celli ...

* Morihei Ueshiba *

Hozan Yamamoto Fongshan District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency () is a district located in southern Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Fongshan is one of the administrative centers of Kaohsiung and is home to the Republic of China Military Academy. ...

* Yoshihisa Yamamoto *

Koji Yamamura Koji, Kōji, Kohji or Kouji may refer to: *Kōji (given name), a masculine Japanese given name *Kōji (Heian period) was a after '' Eiji'' and before ''Ten'yō.'' This period spanned the year from April 1142 through February 1144. The reigning ...

* Kono Yasui *

Akinori Yonezawa is a Japanese computer scientist specializing in object-oriented programming, distributed computing and information security. Being a graduate of the University of Tokyo, Yonezawa has a Ph.D in computer science from MIT in the Actor group at th ...

* Masaaki Yuasa *

Toshiko Yuasa was a Japanese nuclear physicist who worked in France. She was the first Japanese female physicist. Early life and education Yuasa was born in Taitō Ward, Tokyo, in 1909. Her father was an engineer who worked for the Japanese patent office. Her ...

* Kōji Yakusho * Katsuya Yokoyama

Blue

Clara Converse Clara Adra Converse (May 8, 1857 – January 24, 1935) was an American educator and missionary who joined the Woman’s Baptist Foreign Missionary Society and became a pioneer educator in Japan. After earning her credentials at the Vermont Academ ...

awarded 1929 for contributions to women's education. * Tano Jōdai awarded for contributions to women's education *

Rokuro Ishikawa was a Japanese businessman and one of the most influential figures in the Japanese construction industry. He was Honorary Chairman of Kajima Corporation, one of the biggest construction companies in Japan, from 2005 until his death. Prior to tha ...

* Koichi Kawai *

Yasuhiro Fukushima was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...

Yanosuke Hirai was a Japanese civil engineer and corporate executive in the electric power industry. He developed electric power generation in the Tohoku region during the Shōwa era with unusual foresight and a deep sense of responsibility. 25 years after ...

, Nuclear engineer whose precaution and foresight prevented two nuclear disasters. * Masaru Ibuka *

Kaoru Inoue Marquess Inoue Kaoru (井上馨, January 16, 1836 – September 1, 1915) was a Japanese politician and a prominent member of the Meiji oligarchy during the Meiji period of the Empire of Japan. As one of the senior statesmen (''Genrō'') in Ja ...

Honor awarded 2009 (Nagasaki Prefecture)
*

Kazuo Imai is a Tokyo-based guitarist who plays in a rigorous and original free improvisation idiom. His music joins the rigour and texture of contemporary classical with the passion of free jazz. He has played with many Western and Japanese improvisers, inc ...

Honor awarded 2009 (Kyoto Prefecture)
*

Keiichi Ishizaka was a Japanese music industry executive who was the chairman of Recording Industry Association of Japan. Personal life Born in Saitama-ken, he learned the music of Japan while studying Business Administration at Keio University. He graduated in ...

Norio Ohga , otherwise spelled ''Norio Oga'' (January 29, 1930 – April 23, 2011), was the former president and chairman of Sony Corporation, credited with spurring the development of the compact disc as a commercially viable audio format. Biography Early ...

Sony
"Passing of Norio Ohga, Senior Advisor and former President and Chairman, Sony Corporation,"
April 23, 2011; retrieved 2011-08-08 *

Eishiro Saito (November 11, 1911 - April 22, 2002) was a Japanese businessman, the former President of Nippon Steel, the 6th Chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) from 1986 to 1991, President of the Japan Science Foundation from 1988, President o ...

* Hiroko Sakai * Nobuchika Sugimura * Shoichiro Toyoda * Yoshikazu YahiroHonor awarded 2009 (Fukuoka Prefecture)
*

Gōgen Yamaguchi Jitsumi Gōgen Yamaguchi (山口剛玄; January 20, 1909 – May 20, 1989), also known as Gōgen Yamaguchi, was a Japanese martial artist and student of Gōjū-ryū Karate under Chōjun Miyagi. He was one of the most well-known karate-dō ...

Alice Appenzeller Alice Rebecca Appenzeller (9 November 1885 – 20 February 1950) was the first American and first Caucasian born in Korea. Daughter of the Methodist missionary Rev. Henry Appenzeller who was among the first to introduce Protestantism to Korea, she ...

* Magokichi Yamaoka * Carlos Ghosn *

Toshiko Satake Toshiko is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings *敏子 "agile/clever, child" *俊子 "genius, child" *淑子 "graceful/polite, child" *寿子 "longevity, child" *年子 "year/age, child" *歳子 "age/time, child" *稔子 "humble, ch ...

(

Satake Corporation based in Hiroshima, Japan, is a multinational company mainly focused in equipment for the processing and sorting of agricultural products such as rice, grains and beans. The corporation was founded in Japan by Riichi Satake in 1896. They have no ...

) *

Abbas Kiarostami Abbas Kiarostami ( fa, عباس کیارستمی ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of ...

Hiroyuki Ito , is a Japanese game producer, director and designer who works for Square Enix. He is known as the director of ''Final Fantasy VI'' (1994), ''Final Fantasy IX'' (2000) and ''Final Fantasy XII'' (2006) and as the creator of the Active Time Batt ...

(Crypton Future Media) *

Miyazaki Atsuo Miyazaki may refer to: People * Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese animator * Hidetaka Miyazaki, video game director * Gorō Miyazaki, Japanese film director and landscaper, and son of Hayao Miyazaki. * For others, see Miyazaki (surname) Places * Miyazaki P ...

Tomio Fukuoka (born January 1, 1936) is a Japanese educator and Academian. He is the Founder/Chairman of Kobe Denshi and Graduate School of Information Technology (KIC). Early life Tomio Fukuoka was born in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. Professional career T ...

(1993) * Tokio Yokoi, Rev ordained minister and politician, international author 1890 to 1920. IHJ 3rd Class Honour award for his contributions during the 1919 Paris Peace Talks * Tsuyoshi Kikukaw

*Kisshomaru Ueshib

*Moriteru Ueshib

Dark blue

* Ayumi Hamasaki * Shingo Katori * Tak Matsumoto *

Masahiro Nakai is a Japanese television host, actor, news presenter, radio personality. He was the leader of the now defunct boy band SMAP, which had been the best-selling boy band in Asia. While working as a member of a boy band, he worked extensively as a te ...

Takahiro Nishijima is a Japanese singer and actor who is the main vocalist of the group AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan ...

Yoshiki Yoshiki is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yoshiki can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *義樹, "justice, tree" *義基, "justice, foundation" *義機, "justice, opportu ...

References

Bibliography

* Peterson, James W., Barry C. Weaver and Michael A. Quigley. (2001). ''Orders and Medals of Japan and Associated States.'' San Ramon, California: Orders and Medals Society of America.

External links

* Japan, Cabinet Office
Decorations and Medals
** Decoration Bureau

*

Japan Mint The is an Independent Administrative Institution of the Japanese government, responsible for producing and circulating the coins of Japan. The agency has its head office in Osaka with branches in Saitama and Hiroshima. The Japan Mint does not pr ...

Production Process
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medals Of Honor (Japan) Awards established in 1881 1881 establishments in Japan * Ribbon symbolism