TOKYO—Japan's Shinya Yamanaka may have won $1.2 million along with British researcher John Gurdon when the two were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine earlier this month, but now he is also getting a new washing machine.

Yamanaka joked that he was fixing his washing machine when Oslo called to say he had won the prize for his achievement in the induced pluripotent stem cell research, and since has not had time to finish the repairs.

On Friday, Japan's science minister, Makiko Tanaka, said she has presented Yamanaka a gift certificate signed by 16 of her colleagues, with each chipping in 10,000 yen ($126), so his family can choose a new washing machine.