Two-time Oscar-winning Japanese anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and sociologist Chizuko Ueno, known for her studies on women and gender issues, were selected on Wednesday among Time magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People of 2024.
Miyazaki announced his retirement in 2013 but returned to the industry years later to work on his 2023 film "The Boy and the Heron," which won the 83-year-old a second U.S. Academy Award this year.
"He is the single most influential animation director in the history of the medium, and one of my top 10 favorite storytellers in any audiovisual medium," Guillermo Del Toro, a Mexican Oscar-winning filmmaker, said in a tribute in the magazine.
For Ueno, 75, journalist Leta Hong Fincher noted the Japanese sociologist's impact in China where state propaganda under the government led by President Xi Jinping stigmatizes single women.
"Ueno, who has no children, has become a role model for millions of Chinese women quietly rebelling against pressure to marry and have babies," Fincher said.
Among the other people in this year's list were Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, a prominent Russian critic of President Vladimir Putin who died in jail earlier this year, and Taiwanese President-elect Lai Ching-te.
Time also picked Japan-born immunologist Akiko Iwasaki, 53, for her research on how the immune system reacts to COVID-19 the aftereffects of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
"Her expertise in innate immunity -- or how the immune system first reacts to pathogens -- is providing key insights into long COVID," according to Anthony Fauci, a professor at Georgetown University.
Katsuhiko Hayashi, a professor at Osaka University, was also listed for his work in reproductive biology.
"His work offers hope to those with infertility problems or same-sex couples who one day wish to have biological children. It could also enable endangered species to breed," said Nobel laureate scientist Shinya Yamanaka in the magazine.
Related coverage:
Anime giant Hayao Miyazaki wins 2nd Oscar, Godzilla visual effects winner
FEATURE: Japan feminist Ueno's books resonate with struggling Chinese women
