Masato Sagawa (佐川眞人; born August 3, 1943, in Tokushima, Japan) is a Japanese scientist and entrepreneur, and the inventor of the sintered permanent neodymium magnet (NdFeB).

Sagawa was awarded the Japan Prize and IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies for his efforts.

Sagawa initially conceived and developed the sintered NdFeB when he was with Fujitsu Laboratories, where he worked from 1972 to 1982.

Lacking his supervisor's support for the new magnetic compound, Sagawa resigned in 1981, joining Sumitomo Special Metals.

[1][2] During this same time period, John Croat from General Motors (GM) had independently discovered the same Nd2Fe14B compound.