was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese statistician

Statistician

A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...

 who championed the ideas of R.A. Fisher and went on to influence the fields of quality control

Quality control

Quality control, or QC for short, is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. This approach places an emphasis on three aspects:...

 and biometrics

Biometrics

Biometrics As Jain & Ross point out, "the term biometric authentication is perhaps more appropriate than biometrics since the latter has been historically used in the field of statistics to refer to the analysis of biological data [36]" . consists of methods...

.

Life

Born Otaru, Hokkaidō

Otaru, Hokkaido

is a city and port in Shiribeshi, Hokkaido, Japan, northwest of Sapporo. The city faces the Ishikari Bay, and has long served as the main port of the bay. With its many historical buildings, Otaru is a popular tourist destination...

, Masuyama graduated in physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 from the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1937 and earned his doctorate

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 in 1943. Characterising Fisher's approach to statistics as the science of inference and planning, Masuyama worked across a wide range of agencies including: the Japan Meteorological Agency

Japan Meteorological Agency

The or JMA, is the Japanese government's weather service. Charged with gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Japan, it is a semi-autonomous part of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport...

; the University of Tokyo School of Medicine; the Institute of Statistical Mathematics

Institute of Statistical Mathematics

The Institute of Statistical Mathematics is Japan's national research institute for statistical science. In October 2009, it relocated from the Azabu district of Tokyo to Tachikawa city...

; the Indian Statistical Institute

Indian Statistical Institute

Indian Statistical Institute is a public research institute and university in Kolkata's northern outskirt of Baranagar, India founded by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in 1931...

, where he collabrated with Fisher, another frequent visitor; the Ministry of Public Health and Welfare, where his teaching in design of experiments

Design of experiments

In general usage, design of experiments or experimental design is the design of any information-gathering exercises where variation is present, whether under the full control of the experimenter or not. However, in statistics, these terms are usually used for controlled experiments...

 profoundly influenced the young Genichi Taguchi

Genichi Taguchi

is an engineer and statistician. From the 1950s onwards, Taguchi developed a methodology for applying statistics to improve the quality of manufactured goods...

; the University of North Carolina

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...

, and The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...

. In 1970, he joined the applied mathematics department at the University of Tokyo and remained there until his retirement in 1988.

Masuyama held many radical views on the application of statistics to human biology

Human biology

Human Biology is an interdisciplinary area of study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, epidemiology, ecology, nutrition, population genetics and sociocultural influences. It is closely related to...

.

External links

• Obituary by Manabu Iwasaki, in Biometric, Bulletin of the International Biometric Society (pdf)