TOKYO — Hirofumi Uzawa, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo and a globally renowned scholar of modern Japanese economics, died of pneumonia on Sept. 18, it has been learned. He was 86.
Born in Tottori Prefecture, Uzawa graduated from the mathematics department of the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Science in 1951. He became an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and later a professor at the University of Chicago.
Beginning in 1969, Uzawa served as a professor in Japan, first at the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Economics and later at Chuo University’s Faculty of Economics. Internationally known for his theories of economic growth, Uzawa was considered a strong contender to be the first Japanese ever to win the Nobel Prize in Economics.
In 1974, when automotive exhaust and road accidents were emerging as serious issues, Uzawa published a book titled “Jidosha no Shakaiteki Hiyo” (“The Social Cost of Automobiles”), warning of the environmental hazards of a society heavily dependent on motor vehicles.
He was awarded the Order of Culture in 1997.