The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's biggest daily, published a front page apology in its Oct. 13 morning edition admitting its sensational reports earlier in the week on the transplant of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells were wrong.

The newspaper has a circulation of around 10 million.

Yomiuri had reported that Japanese researcher Hisashi Moriguchi, 48, conducted the first clinical application of iPS cells in the world.

The Oct. 11 report came three days after Japan's Shinya Yamanaka was named co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for his pioneering work in stem cell research.

Along with the apology, Yomiuri printed the results of its own study into the reporting behind the initial story.

The Oct. 13 report concluded that its initial story was erroneous on grounds that a university lecturer who it had said served as co-writer of the scientific article by Moriguchi was not involved in the research. It also said that Harvard University denied the credibility of the research results that Moriguchi claimed in his article.

Meanwhile, Moriguchi talked to reporters Oct. 12 outside of the hotel in New York where he was staying.

He stated that he felt there was nothing wrong with the facts and his background. He also refused to comment on Yomiuri's admission it had published erroneous reports.