Top �� What's up around the Prime Minister �� February, 2003

Presentation of Letters of Appreciation from the Prime Minister to Nobel Laureates Friday, February 7, 2003 Nobel Laureates Masatoshi Koshiba and Koichi Tanaka were invited to the Prime Minister's Official Residence, where Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi presented them each with a Letter of Appreciation from the Prime Minister and silver cups with the chrysanthemum crest from His Majesty the Emperor of Japan. Dr. Koshiba and Mr. Tanaka were awarded Nobel Prizes in December last year in Stockholm, Sweden, Dr. Koshiba for his accomplishment of observing neutrinos in the field of astrophysics, and Mr. Tanaka for his contributions in the field of the mass spectrometry of proteins. The letters of appreciation and silver cups were bestowed to honor these achievements. At the presentation ceremony, also attended by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Hiroyuki Hosoda, and Minister of Education, Sports, Science and Technology Atsuko Toyama, Prime Minister Koizumi presented the two Nobel Laureates with the letters and the silver cups, and a commemorative photograph was taken. Prime Minister Koizumi then spoke with the two Nobel Laureates.