Born: 16 February 1880, Japan
Died: 24 March 1971
Country most active: Japan
Also known as: 保井 コノ, Yasui Kono
Japanese biologist and cytologist (scientist who studies cells) Kono Yasui became the first Japanese woman to receive a doctoral degree in science in 1927. Over her more than 40-year career, she published 99 scientific papers, and was the first Japanse woman to publish an academic paper in an international journal.
In her early career, women were largely prevented from pursuing careers in academia or the sciences. Ministry of Education officials were reluctant to grant her application to study abroad, believing that “a woman cannot achieve much in science.” She was required to ass “home economics research” to “scientific research” on her application and agree not to marry, to ensure she committed to her research. Yasui travelled to the United States, conducting cytological research at the University of Chicago in 1914, then researching coal at Harvard University in 1915. After returning to Japan in 1916, she continued her coal research at Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) until 1927, when she completed her doctoral thesis, “Studies on the structure of lignite, brown coal, and bituminous coal in Japan”. The university did not officially admit women until 1946, almost 20 years later. Yasui also taught genetics there from 1918 to 1939 and in 1919 became a professor at Tokyo’s Women’s Higher Normal School, Japan’s first institution of higher education for women.
Yasui established the journal Cytologia in 1929. In 1924, she began researched plant genetics in poppies, corn and Tradescantia species. In 1945, she surveyed plants affected by the nuclear fallout from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After World War II, Yasui played a pivotal role in the transformation of Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School to a national university for women, Ochanomizu University, teaching there as a professor until her retirement in 1952.
She received a Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, which are awarded to people who have contributed to academic and artistic developments, improvements and accomplishments, and an Order of the Precious Crown Third Class for her academic achievements and leadership in women’s education in Japan.