10月9日（金）ノーベル賞の秋、今年も到来〜with NIKKEI
Nobel Prize Week has arrived with a surprise for Japan: Professor Emeritus Sōgō (素合) of Tokyo University of Science has won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the "Sōgō Reaction," a breakthrough addressing why life's amino acids are almost exclusively left-handed — a mystery spanning 4.6 billion years. His win makes him Japan's 28th laureate across the three natural-science categories. Meanwhile, a joint statement by Fields Medal recipients condemning OpenAI's claim of solving the Navier-Stokes equations as "harmful to mathematics" has reignited urgent questions about how humans and AI coexist.
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What this episode answers
Who won this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and where does he rank among Japanese natural-science laureates?
Professor Emeritus Sōgō (素合) of Tokyo University of Science won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, becoming Japan's 28th laureate across the three natural-science fields of chemistry, physiology/medicine, and physics. The win was widely seen as a surprise, since two Japanese researchers had won last year and many assumed Japan would be shut out again.
What is the "Sōgō Reaction" and why is it considered significant?
The Sōgō Reaction addresses the chiral asymmetry of amino acids — the fact that living organisms use almost exclusively left-handed amino acids while sugars are right-handed, a puzzle that has gone unsolved for 4.6 billion years. A researcher described it as "a major step toward solving life's long-standing mystery spanning 4.6 billion years."
Why are mathematicians pushing back against OpenAI's announcement about the Navier-Stokes equations?
Fields Medal recipients issued a joint statement arguing that AI companies are using hard mathematical problems as benchmarks to showcase their systems' performance rather than to advance understanding, and that mass-producing solutions this way risks destroying the environment in which humans can think deeply. They called the practice "harmful to mathematics as a science."
Who or which institutions are considered frontrunners for the Nobel Literature Prize and Peace Prize?
Haruki Murakami is again the most-watched name for the Literature Prize; for the Peace Prize, the International Peace Research Institute lists the ICC (International Criminal Court) and ICJ (International Court of Justice) as leading candidates, with Japanese national Tomoko Akane (赤根智子) serving as ICC president.
When will the Nobel Prize in Economics be announced, and has Japan ever won it?
The Economics Prize will be announced on Monday, October 12; Japan has never won the prize, which often focuses on themes closely tied to daily life such as prices and monetary policy.
Nobel Chemistry Prize Goes to TUS's Professor Emeritus Sōgō — Japan's 28th Natural-Science Laureate
Nobel Prize Week is here, and for Japan it opened with a genuine surprise. Tokyo University of Science Professor Emeritus Sōgō (素合) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on October 7, a moment that caused a stir in the Nikkei newsroom as staff crowded around a live feed of the announcement. Nikkei's digital edition has since launched a dedicated Nobel Prize special page.
Counting chemistry, physiology/medicine, and physics together, Sōgō is the 28th Japanese recipient in the natural sciences. Last year, Sakaguchi Shimon (坂口志文) took the Physiology/Medicine Prize and Kitagawa Usumu (北川薄務) the Chemistry Prize — two Japanese winners in a single year. With that precedent fresh in memory, many observers assumed Japan would sit out 2026. The win was therefore a complete surprise. Adding a human-interest dimension: Sōgō reportedly received the call from Stockholm while shopping at a supermarket.
The "Sōgō Reaction" — A Window onto a 4.6-Billion-Year Mystery
The research behind the prize takes on one of the deepest unsolved puzzles in the life sciences: chiral asymmetry in amino acids. Amino acids come in two mirror-image forms — right-handed and left-handed — yet virtually all amino acids found in living organisms are left-handed, while sugars are overwhelmingly right-handed. Why this asymmetry exists has been a mystery for roughly 4.6 billion years, essentially as long as life on Earth has existed. The Sōgō Reaction addresses precisely this question. A researcher interviewed on the topic called it "a major step toward solving life's long-standing mystery spanning 4.6 billion years."
AI Solves the Navier-Stokes Equations — Mathematicians Fire Back
In September, American company OpenAI announced that it had used artificial intelligence to solve the Navier-Stokes equations, a set of equations in fluid dynamics that had remained unsolved for more than 90 years and are central to applications ranging from weather forecasting to aerospace engineering.
The response from the mathematics community was swift and pointed. A group of Fields Medal recipients — whose award is widely described as the Nobel Prize of mathematics — issued a joint statement calling OpenAI's approach "harmful to mathematics as a science." The core of their criticism is the suspicion that AI companies are deploying hard mathematical problems as performance benchmarks to showcase their systems' capabilities, rather than to deepen understanding. Critics also warned that if solutions are generated in bulk by machines, the conditions in which human beings can sit with a problem and think it through carefully will gradually disappear. The programme noted that "the age may soon arrive when the question of how humans and AI coexist in this world is reflected back onto the Nobel Prize itself."
Literature, Peace, and Economics — What to Watch Next
The Literature Prize was scheduled to be announced on the evening of the recording date, and Haruki Murakami is once again the name drawing the most attention. Reporter Shimazaki (島崎) mentioned Murakami's debut novel, *Hear the Wind Sing* (風の歌を聴け), and said the reading season is a fitting moment to pick up his latest work.
The Peace Prize will follow the next morning. The International Peace Research Institute names the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) among the leading candidates. The ICC is currently led by Japanese national Tomoko Akane (赤根智子), though the court is in a complicated position, with the Trump administration applying sanctions pressure.
The final prize — Economics — will be announced on Monday, October 12. The category often recognises work on themes that directly affect everyday life, such as inflation and monetary policy. Japan has never produced a Nobel Economics laureate, a fact reporter Shimazaki highlighted as an extra reason to pay close attention this year.
Takeaways
- Professor Emeritus Sōgō of Tokyo University of Science won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the Sōgō Reaction — his work on amino acid chirality makes him Japan's 28th natural-science laureate, a result few had anticipated.
- OpenAI's claim of solving the Navier-Stokes equations drew a joint rebuke from Fields Medal winners, who called it "harmful to mathematics" and warned that AI-driven bulk solutions could erode the conditions for deep human thought.
- The Literature Prize spotlight remains on Haruki Murakami, the Peace Prize frontrunners are the ICC and ICJ, and the Economics Prize — which Japan has never won — will be announced on October 12.
This article is edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. It is not an official summary — please listen to the episode itself.