Fukushima Satoshi

Born in Hyōgo Prefecture in 1962. Lost sight in both eyes by age 9 and his hearing at the age of 18. In 1983, he gained entry to Tokyo Metropolitan University, becoming the first deafblind person in Japan to study at the university level. Became an associate professor at Kanazawa University, and has been a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology since 2008, the first deafblind person in the world to become a full-time university professor. Is director of the Japan Deafblind Association and was Asia’s regional representative for the World Federation of the Deafblind for five terms through October 2022. In 1996, won the Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Prize jointly with his mother Reiko. In 2003, the US magazine Time named him among their Asian Heroes. His writings include Mōrōsha toshite ikite (Life as a Deafblind Person) and Boku no inochi wa kotoba to tomo ni aru (My Life Is with Words)