The Order of the Rising Sun is one of the highest civilian honours in Japan.
On Monday, the Japanese government awarded veteran manga creator Gō Nagai and Dragon Quest game franchise creator Yuji Horii with the Order of the Rising Sun Award, Gold Rays with Rosette. This award celebrates their contribution to the country and their impact on the manga and video game industry.
Gō Nagai and Yuji Horii have received this incredible honour
The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that Gō Nagai and Yuji Horii are amongst the 3,963 honorees of the annual Autumn Conferment of Decorations.. On 11 November, 2025, the ministry will arrange a ceremony to celebrate and honour the award winners. Last year, veteran composer Joe Hisaishi, known for his work in the Studio Ghibli movies such as Spirited Away, Nausicaä, My Neighbor Totoro, received the same award.
Gō Nagai began his journey as a mangaka with Meakashi Polikichi in 1967. His more popular works include Devilman, Cutie Honey, and Mazinger Z. He is known for creating the Super Robot genre, where someone pilots a giant mecha robot from within a cockpit. He has also been a member of the nominating committee of the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize since 2009, and owns studio, Dynamic Productions. Nagai mentions what an honour it is to receive this award after pursuing his calling of creating manga for over six decades.
Yuji Horii is mainly known for the creation of the popular video game franchise Dragon Quest, a franchise which has sold over 86 million copies worldwide. He also supervised and wrote the scenarios for Chrono Trigger and The Portopia Serial Murder Case. The latter of which came out in 1983, as one of the first visual novel adventure games.