Junichiro Itani

Junichiro Itani
伊谷 純一郎
Born	(1926-05-09)9 May 1926
Died	19 August 2001(2001-08-19) (aged 75)
Nationality	Japanese
Alma mater	Kyoto University
Awards	Huxley Award in Anthropology (1984)
Scientific career
Fields	primatology
Institutions	Kyoto University

Junichiro Itani
Japanese name
Kanji	伊谷 純一郎
Hiragana	いたにじゅんいちろう
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Itani Jun'ichirō Traditional Hepburn Itani Jun-Ichirō Kunrei-shiki Itani Zyun'itirô Nihon-shiki Itani Zyun'itirô

Junichiro Itani (伊谷 純一郎, Itani Jun'ichirō, May 9, 1926 – August 19, 2001) is considered a founder of the discipline of Japanese primatology. He was an internationally renowned anthropologist and served as a professor emeritus at Kyoto University and president of the Primate Society of Japan. He died at age 75 of pneumonia. As with most Japanese primatologists, his early research was on Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), but most of his career focused on African primates, especially chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). He started research in Africa in 1958. The majority of his work was based around the social structures of primate society.

Itani graduated in 1951 from Kyoto University, and became professor in the Faculty of Science in 1981. He founded the university's Primate Research Institute and the Center for African Area Studies. He also served as professor at Kobe Gakuin University. In 1984, he received the Huxley Award in Anthropology from the Royal Anthropological Institute in London.

Books available in English

• Japanese Monkeys in Takasakiyama (1954)
• Hominid culture in primate perspective / Duane Quiatt and Junichiro Itani, editors (1994)
• A Comparative study of ecological anthropology in tropical Africa
• Great Ape Societies by William C McGrew; Linda F Marchant; Toshisada Nishida; Jane Goodall and Junichiro Itani