Junichiro Itani, an internationally renowned anthropologist and professor emeritus at Kyoto University, died of pneumonia at a Kyoto hospital Sunday, his family said Monday. He was 75.
A native of Kyoto, Itani graduated from Kyoto University in 1951. He became professor at the university's Faculty of Science in 1981 and founded the Primate Research Institute and the Center for African Area Studies, both at the state-run university. Itani also served as a professor at Kobe Gakuin University and president of the Primate Society of Japan.
He began studying wild Japanese macaque in Oita Prefecture when he was young, feeding them and learning to recognize individual monkeys.