Ken Naito (born 1978) is a Japanese plant geneticist and senior researcher at the Genetic Resources Center of the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO). He earned a Ph.D. in agricultural science from Kyoto University and studies the genomes and genetic diversity of wild relatives of azuki beans, including the salt tolerance of species that grow in coastal environments, with the aim of identifying genetic resources that could contribute to future food security. In "Azuki no Kigen," he combines genomic analysis of azuki beans from across Asia with archaeological evidence from the Jomon period to challenge the conventional view that cultivated azuki beans originated on the Asian continent and were later introduced to Japan. His research instead traces evidence that azuki cultivation began in prehistoric Japan and subsequently spread to the continent.
