Dr. Hisashi Nagai

Dr. Hisashi Nagai’s story is one of the most compelling in Japanese medicine — a physician-scientist who walked away from Keio University’s Faculty of Law to pursue medicine, ultimately earning his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo and becoming a leading expert in tumour immunology and cancer immune cell therapy. His research career, centred at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine under a Ministry of Education fellowship, broke new scientific ground in macrophage-mediated pulmonary microcirculation control, with findings published in international journals following a landmark multi-institutional collaboration at Japan’s SPring-8 synchrotron radiation facility. As Visiting Associate Professor at Tokai University’s Graduate School of Human Environmental Studies, Dr. Nagai brings the rigour of academic medicine to the most pressing clinical challenge of our time: harnessing the human immune system to fight advanced cancer. His appointment as Director of Ginza Phoenix Clinic in 2021 marked the culmination of this vision, translating decades of immunological research into practical, accessible cancer therapy for patients who need it most. The clinic’s pending-patent NKT cell culture technology (特願2025-95087) — representing Dr. Nagai’s original innovation — underscores both his continuing scientific productivity and his commitment to pushing the boundaries of what immune cell therapy can achieve.