The International Prize for Biology is an annual award for significant contributions to biology. The award was created in 1985 to recognize Emperor Hirohito of Japan's long time interest in and support of the biological sciences. The selection and award of the prize is managed by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The reciepient scientist is awarded 10 million Yen and an international symposium on the scientists area of research is held.

Recipients and their field of study:

• 1985 - E.J.H. Corner - Taxonomy or Systematic Biology
• 1986 - Peter H. Raven - Systematic Biology and Taxonomy
• 1987 - Sir John B. Gurdon - Developmental Biology
• 1988 - Motoo Kimura - Population Biology
• 1989 - Sir Eric Denton - Marine Biology
• 1990 - Masakazu Konishi - Behavioral Biology
• 1991 - Marshall D. Hatch - Functional botany
• 1992 - Knut Schmidt-Nielsen - Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry
• 1993 - Edward O. Wilson - Ecology
• 1994 - Ernst Mayr - Systematic Biology and Taxonomy
• 1995 - Ian Read Gibbons - Cell Biology
• 1996 - Ryuzo Yanagimachi - Biology of Reproduction
• 1997 - Elliot Martin Meyerowitz - botany
• 1998 - Otto Thomas Solbrig - The Biology of Biodiversity
• 1999 - Setsuro Ebashi - Animal Physiology
• 2000 - Seymour Benzer - Developmental Biology
• 2001 - Harry B. Whittington - Paleontology
• 2002 - Masatoshi Nei - evolutionary biology
• 2003 - Shinya Inoué - Cell Biology
• 2004 - Thomas Cavalier-Smith - Systematic Biology and Taxonomy
• 2005 - Nam-Hai Chua - Structural Biology in Fine Structure, Morphology and Morphogenesis
• 2006 - Serge Daan