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Delays in cancer diagnosis are killing Canadians. Surgeon-scientist Dr. Kazuhiro Yasufuku is fighting this crisis head-on with a groundbreaking device that could cut wait times from weeks to minutes.

Over 5,000 surgeries performed, with a mortality rate of 0.03%. In thoracic surgical treatment such as lung cancer, Yasufuku Kazuhiro is a doctor who has built an astonishing track record. Leading an elite team from around the world in Toronto, Canada, he pursues cutting-edge cancer treatment. He’s a pioneer of “minimally invasive treatment” that not only removes the cancer, but puts as little burden on the patient as possible. Even a 95-year-old has received surgery from him, and the majority of his patients can walk out of the hospital the next day. This is the story of a doctor who is entrusted with the dawn of cancer treatment.

Dr. Shaf Keshavjee is a world-renowned thoracic surgeon-scientist with a history of breakthroughs and discoveries in lung transplantation. He is the current Surgeon-in-Chief of the Sprott Department of Surgery, the Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program and Latner Thoracic Research Laboratories at UHN, and Professor of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto.

Dedicated, tenacious, kind, loyal, these are just a few of the words used to describe this year’s Sakura Award recipient Dr. Kazuhiro Yasufuku. His exceptional contribution to the promotion and exchange of Japanese culture and enhancing awareness of Nikkei heritage within Canada and abroad, and brilliant work in minimally invasive, image-guided and robotic diagnostics and therapeutics for lung cancer will continue to save lives, and foster knowledge exchange and scientific collaboration between Canada and Japan.