The people of Japan received welcome news in 1954 of the first chemical synthesis of vitamin B₂ (riboflavin) in their nation. Furthermore, the new Japanese procedure for synthesizing the essential vitamin consisted of only 13 steps. The method used in the West at the time to synthesize vitamin B₂ consisted of more than 20 steps, so the Japanese procedure was a huge advance in streamlining production and in lowering costs.

Credit for the breakthrough in vitamin synthesis goes to two members of what was then the Department of Organic Chemistry at Tokyo Tech: Tetsuo Sato, then a research assistant and later a professor, and Toshio Hoshino, a professor of chemistry who was Sato's mentor. Their accomplishment was especially welcome in a nation where reducing reliance on imports was an economic priority in postwar rebuilding. Japan's only technology for producing vitamin B₂ commercially was a fermentation method, and the domestic production yields were insufficient to meet demand. So Japan relied on imports for most of its supplies of the vitamin.

Lucrative science

A leading pharmaceuticals company, Tokyo Tanabe (now part of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma), noticed the promising work under way at Tokyo Tech and initiated joint research with Sato and Hoshino. A scientific highlight of that research was the development of an electrolytic reduction method for synthesizing the riboflavin component ribose.

The researchers secured a patent for their method for synthesizing vitamin B₂ in 1950, and Tokyo Tanabe built a pilot plant in 1954. Mass production got under way in 1955, and the technology spawned at Tokyo Tech was Japan's chief source of the vitamin for decades. Tokyo Tech's share of the royalties earned a large income and funded the establishment of what is now the university's School and Graduate School of Bioscience and Biotechnology.