Shiga Kiyoshi 志賀潔 was born in Sendai in 1871. He studied medicine and worked with the microbiologist Kitasato Shibasaburō. From 1901 to 1905 and again in 1912, he spent time in Germany, where he worked with Paul Ehrlich. In 1920 he was appointed head of the Medical Academy in Seoul, and in 1926 dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the newly founded Imperial University of Seoul, where he became rector in 1929. He returned to Japan in 1931.

Shiga received great international recognition for his bacteriological research. Shiga wrote most of his scientific papers in German.

The bacterial group Shigella, which is responsible for severe intestinal diseases, was named after Shiga Kiyoshi. In 1898, he identified them as the cause of bacterial dysentery (shigellosis).