Friday, May 29, 2026

Some Top Quantum Researchers in Japan

 A while ago, I created a blog post on quantum architecture researchers in Japan, mostly young ones and all very good. But I'm often asked more generally about quantum research and researchers in Japan, so here is a list to refer to. Note that it's ordered by Google Scholar h-index (in parentheses; taken when I wrote this blog post -- we're not being scientific here), which is almost inarguably a terrible way to do it, I don't have a better method at hand. h-index and influence in Japan both correlate with longevity and probably with other factors such as gender. (There is also the caveat that not everyone actually curates their Scholar profile, but eyeballing this particular set they look fairly accurate.)

A lot of other factors influence publications and citations, including ability to both publish and speak in English, but conversely non-native Japanese people are at a disadvantage in the gossip and influence network inside Japan, including hearing about and ultimately influencing the creation of funding opportunities, so there are plusses and minuses.

A few important people don't have Google Scholar profiles (at least not public ones), so I have dropped them into this list entirely qualitatively roughly where I think they belong.

(Todai = University of Tokyo)

(Yeah, when you get to the bottom of the list, I've included our own younger people, whom I know better than the younger people in other places. There are a lot more researchers with h-indices in the 10-25 range. I picked some I like. So sue me.)
(I think the top 20 or so on this list is a relatively complete list of the senior people in the field here; if I've forgotten anybody, let me know!)

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