Japanese decorations for spring 2008

The Japanese government has released the list of recipients of this year's spring decorations, comprising 3,973 Japanese and 51 foreign nationals, for their contributions to the nation and public in politics, business, culture and the arts. Readers of X-Ray Spectrometry would be interested to know that Sir Martin Wood, one of the founders of Oxford Instruments, received The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon. An official explanation of Japanese decorations and medals can be found at http://www8.cao.go.jp/english/decoration/index.html Wikipedia carries a comprehensive introduction at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Rising_Sun