On July 4th, songwriter and music producer Nakata Yasutaka won the award in the "creator" category at the 2012 "Change Maker of the Year" awards ceremony.

The votes for this award were submitted by approximately 800,000 readers, with awards given to those who are making ground-breaking contributions to their fields, have had outstanding achievement in their respective categories, and are blazing a trail as "change makers".

Due to circumstances, Nakata himself was not able to attend the ceremony to accept his prize, but in a video he commented, "I don't think I personally am able to change anything... I want to support people who think they can. When you want to make something you want to make, creating a favorable environment for producing only the things that you want to can be difficult. But when you've created that difficult balance, something is born. Giving up on creating the things you want to create means you've lost," he said passionately, expressing his feelings as a producer and musician.

The other two who took home prizes at the event are Komatsu Masami in the management category for his work as the representative director of Music Securities, Inc, and Takai Ken in the researcher category�for serving as the director of machinery dedicated to exploring the ocean and programs that research the bio dome on the ocean floor and the Earth's crust.

Every year since 2010 when the awards ceremony began, three people have been chosen for their hard work. To date, 16 people have been chosen for the management category, 17 people for the creator category, and 16 people for the researcher category as finalists.

Source: Oricon