Donald Keene, a prominent scholar of Japanese literature at Columbia University, has decided to move permanently to Japan after he delivers his final lecture at the university later this month, sources close to him have said.
The 88-year-old professor emeritus has started the process of acquiring Japanese citizenship, they said.
While he has been spending half of each year in Japan, he determined around January to live in the country full time, partly because travel has become physically demanding for him.
The sources also indicated the March 11 calamity has distressed him and intensified his desire to make Japan home.
He was awarded the Order of Culture in 2008.