Japan: the essential lives

The Pillow Book invented the list-essay a millennium before the internet.

Wrote the world's first psychological novel, a thousand years ago.

Perfected haiku and the travel journal in The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

First Japanese literature laureate; Snow Country and The Old Capital.

Revived Kampo in Japan and secured its place inside the national health insurance system.

Predicted the meson and the nuclear strong force.

Surgeon-acupuncturist who built a biophysical model of meridian therapy.

Designed the Toyota Production System — lean manufacturing worldwide.

Carried macrobiotics from postwar Japan to the West and into the diet-and-disease debate.

Wrote disability, Hiroshima and postwar conscience.

Reprogrammed adult cells into stem cells, remaking regenerative medicine.