The Japanese biologist was Yoshinori Ohsumi.

The Japanese biologist was Yoshinori Ohsumi.

He received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries of the mechanisms of autophagy ("self-eating"), the process by which cells break down and recycle their own components. 

A few important points:

Nobel Prize awarded: 2016. 

His key discoveries were made mainly in the 1990s, when he identified genes involved in autophagy using yeast cells. 

Autophagy helps cells recycle damaged components and can become more active during starvation or fasting. 

One clarification: Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize for discovering the mechanisms of autophagy, not for proving that fasting itself is beneficial. While fasting can stimulate autophagy, the Nobel Prize recognized the cellular biology behind the process.