Shibasaburo Kitasato (born on January 29th, 1853 with Kumamoto in the island of Kyushu and deceased on June 13rd, 1931) is a Japanese doctor and bacteriologist.

In 1885, Kitasato goes to Germany to work in Berlin with Emil Adolf von Behring at the laboratory of Robert Koch. It studies there the disease-causing agents of the Tétanos and the Diphtérie. In 1889, it is the first to make a success of the pure culture of the bacterium Clostridium tetani , causes tetanus. In collaboration with Emil von Behring, it shows in 1890 the effectiveness of the Antitoxine S against tetanus and the diphteria. In 1892, it returned to Japan.

In 1894, it makes in Hongkong at the same time as Yersin of research on the disease-causing agent of the epidemic of Peste which burst there. The description which it publishes of the disease-causing agent proves later to be an error, due probably to the pollution of the bacterial cultures by pneumococci. During some time, Kitasato is regarded as that which discovered the disease-causing agent of the plague that one calls today Yersinia pestis .

In 1914, Kitasato founds in Tokyo an research institute which bears its name today.