was a Japanese

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

famous for being the first to develop a Gastro-camera (a present-day Esophagogastroduodenoscope). His story was illustrated in the

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

TV documentary feature, "Project X: Challengers: The Development of a Gastro-camera Wholly Made in Japan". Sugiura graduated from

Tokyo Polytechnic University is a private university in Honchō, Tokyo, Honchō, Nakano, Tokyo. Its nickname is ''Shadai'' (写大). It was formerly known as Tokyo College of Photography (, ''Tōkyō Shashin Daigaku''). The university was founded as Konishi Professional Sc ...

in 1938 and then joined

Olympus Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of optics and reprography products, headquartered in Hachioji, Tokyo. Olympus was established in 1919, initially specializing in microscopes and thermometers, and later in imaging. Olympus holds roughly a 70 percent sh ...

. While working at this company, he first developed an Esophagogastroduodenoscope in 1950. He died in 1986 at the age of 68.

References

Mutsuo Sugiura, a Developer of the Gastroscope
20th-century Japanese engineers 20th-century Japanese inventors Japanese medical researchers 1918 births 1986 deaths People from Shizuoka Prefecture Scientists from Shizuoka Prefecture {{Japan-engineer-stub