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SAITAMA, JAPAN - DEC. 31: Japan's Riken institute said Thursday it has been recognized by an international organization as the discoverer of the atomic element 113 and has been handed its naming right, after beginning the quest over a decade ago. "It is a feat that will be in textbooks around the world," Hiroshi Matsumoto, the president of Riken's Board of Executive Directors, said at a press conference. It is the first time that scientists from an Asian country have been given the right to name an atomic element in the field long dominated by the United States, Russia and Germany. A joint working group set up by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics has concluded that the data recorded by Riken satisfied all criteria on the discovery of new elements, Riken said. The Japanese team had been in the race for the element's naming right with a U.S.-Russia team. "I'm glad we have been accepted. I will discuss the name of the new element from now on. I can't say it even if I have an idea," said Kosuke Morita, the leader of the Riken team, who is now a Kyushu University professor. The element is expected to be officially named in about a year, after the unions examine the name to be proposed by Riken. "Japonium" has been tentatively proposed as a possible candidate for the new name of the super heavy synthetic element, provisionally named Ununtrium, the institute said earlier. The artificially synthesized element has 113 protons in its nucleus. Morita's team succeeded in creating the element three times by having zinc ions collide with bismuth -- in 2004, 2005 and 2012. Zinc has 30 protons in its nucleus, while bismuth has 83. The U.S.-Russia team said it discovered the element 113 earlier than the Japanese team in 2004, with a different method from Riken's team. "Now we plan to look to the uncharted territory of element 119 and beyond," Morita said in a release.