The first intermolecular asymmetric Michael addition of nitrogen-nucleophiles to α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids was achieved through a new type of arylboronic acid equipped with chiral aminothiourea. The use of BnONH 2 as a nucleophile gives a range of enantioenriched β-(benzyloxy)amino acid derivatives in good yields and with high enantioselectivity (up to 90% yield, 97% enantiomeric excess (ee)). The obtained products are efficiently converted to optically active β-amino acid and 1,2-diamine derivatives.Key words aza-Michael addition; α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid; integrated catalyst; thiourea; arylboronic acid; O-benzylhydroxylamine Stereoselective functionalization of electron-deficient alkenes continues to play a fundamental role in modern organic synthesis. The catalytic asymmetric aza-Michael addition of α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid derivatives has been extensively investigated as a powerful protocol for the synthesis of optically active β-amino acids, [1][2][3][4] which are frequently encountered as important structural components in biologically active natural products and pharmaceuticals. 5) However, simple α,β-unsaturated esters and amides have only been used in a limited number of successful studies because of their inherent low reactivity as Michael acceptors.6,7) Instead, a variety of activated ester/amide surrogates possessing greater reactivity and rigidity, which enables them to interact with appropriate catalysts, have been developed for the Michael addition.8) Recently, a range of activated carboxylates-specifically, α,β-unsaturated imides, 9,10) acyl pyrroles, 11) and acyl pyrazoles 12) -have been successfully applied in asymmetric metal-and organocatalyzed Michael additions to furnish the desired products with excellent enantioselectivity (Chart 1). However, this masked ester/amide strategy requires a stoichiometric amount of an activating auxiliary and additional protection and deprotection steps. From the perspective of atom and step economy, achieving a direct Michael reaction of α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids without the use of any activating templates is highly desirable. Despite strong synthetic utility, the direct Michael addition of α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids has never been reported, except for an enzyme-catalyzed azaMichael addition 13,14) ; very few strategies have been exploited to catalytically activate the hydroxy group of carboxylic acids via transient covalent bond formation.By contrast, since the discovery by Yamamoto and Ishihara that electron-deficient arylboronic acids are efficient activators of carboxylic acids in direct amidation reactions, [15][16][17][18] 24,25) Hall reported that different types of arylboronic acids could be used for the cycloaddition of α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids to dienes and 1,3-dipoles. 20,21) Recently, we also revealed that aminoarylboronic acid was the best catalyst for the intramolecular hetero-Michael addition of α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids bearing sulfonamides or phenols.26) In addition, the asymmetric oxa-Michael ...