Kono Yasui was a Japanese biologist and cytologist. In 1927, she became the first Japanese woman to receive a doctoral degree in science. She received a Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon and was awarded as an Order of the Precious Crown Third Class for her academic accomplishments and leadership in women’s education in Japan.
Yasui was born in the village of Sanbonmatsu in Kagawa Prefecture in 1880, to the owner of a shipping business. She was the first woman to enter the course with a major in science research; she focused on zoology and botany. She completed the graduate program at Women's Higher Normal School in 1907 and became an assistant professor at the school. She traveled to Germany and the United States in 1914 to perform cytological research at the University of Chicago. She travelled to Harvard University in 1915, where she conducted research on coal. She returned to Japan in June 1916 and continued researching coal. She completed her doctoral thesis, "Studies on the structure of lignite, brown coal, and bituminous coal in Japan", in 1927, becoming the first woman in Japan to complete a doctorate in science.
