Japan said Thursday it will bestow decorations this fall on 119 foreigners, including former UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, and 3,999 Japanese people, such as internationally renowned fashion designer Junko Koshino, for their achievements across a wide variety of fields.
Fore will receive the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, the highest commendation for foreigners this season, along with former U.S. National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon and former Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario.
French pastry chef and chocolatier Pierre Herme will be awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette.
Fore, 73, headed the U.N. Children's Fund from 2018 to 2022 as part of her lifelong career as a public servant in fields including economic development, education and health.
She is one of 33 women among the foreign awardees hailing from 54 countries and territories.
Del Rosario, 82, was foreign minister under then-Philippine President Benigno Aquino from 2011 to 2016, while Donilon, 67, served as national security adviser to then-U.S. President Barack Obama from 2010 to 2013.
Named best pastry chef in the world in 2016, Herme, 60, has several outlets in Japan, including one in Tokyo's trendy Aoyama district.
Of the 3,999 Japanese nationals who will receive the fall decorations, 1,910 people, or 47.8 percent, come from the private sector.
The honors are to be given to 436 Japanese women, including Koshino, 83, who will receive the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon.
"I am very happy. I feel that I have been destined a role, a mission," said Koshino, whose real name is Junko Suzuki. "I would like to continue to show the vastness of the world of design."
The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun will be bestowed on six people, including Akira Gunji, 72, a former vice president of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of Japan's parliament, and Satoshi Miura, 78, a former chairman of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.
Astronomer Masanori Ie, 73, will receive the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star. A professor emeritus at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, his team discovered a galaxy located some 12.9 billion light-years from Earth with Japan's Subaru Telescope.
He will be joined by Shigekazu Nagata, 73, a professor emeritus at Osaka University, who is known for his research on apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
Hisashi Ietsugu, 73, chairman of Sysmex Corp., a medical testing equipment company, will receive the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star.
Some of the decorations will be conferred Wednesday at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo by Emperor Naruhito and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
