kajita

Kajita is a Japanese surname. It is written with the kanji 梶田 and is of Japanese origin.

The most widely known bearer is Takaaki Kajita (born 1960), a Japanese experimental physicist who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was instrumental in the discovery of neutrino oscillations, the phenomenon by which neutrinos change flavors and thus have mass. Kajita’s work with the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector in Japan provided key evidence for these oscillations, contributing to a major shift in the understanding of particle physics. He has been associated with the University of Tokyo and the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, where he has conducted extensive research on neutrinos and cosmic rays.

Beyond Takaaki Kajita, the surname is borne by other individuals in Japan and among Japanese communities abroad, but none has achieved the same level of international recognition related to Nobel Prize–winning work. As a Japanese surname, Kajita is primarily encountered in Japanese contexts and in biographical references to people who bear it.