Tsuneo Watanabe —Picture from Jiji Press
TOKYO, Dec. 19 — Tsuneo Watanabe, head of Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings and editor-in-chief of the key Japanese newspaper writer, who additionally had a robust affect over the political world and the enterprise circle, died of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital within the small hours of Thursday. He was 98.
After graduating from the College of Tokyo, Watanabe, a local of Tokyo, joined Yomiuri Shimbun in 1950.
He turned Yomiuri Shimbun president in 1991 after working as a political information reporter, head of the newspaper’s Washington bureau, deputy head of its editorial division, and chief of the political information division.
In 2002, he assumed the presidency of Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings in keeping with the newspaper writer’s transition to a holding firm construction. Watanabe then served as Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings chairman between January 2004 and June 2016.
He headed the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Affiliation from June 1999 to June 2003. He was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Solar in 2008.
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Utilizing his community of connections constructed when he was a political information reporter, Watanabe exerted a robust affect over politicians and enterprise leaders. In 2007, he’s believed to have liaised between then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who was additionally chief of the Liberal Democratic Occasion, and Ichiro Ozawa, then chief of the previous Democratic Occasion of Japan, making an attempt to kind a grand coalition between the 2 events.
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In 2014, Watanabe was appointed chief of a Japanese authorities panel of specialists to set working pointers for the legislation on defending specified nationwide secrets and techniques.
In an interview with NHK, or Japan Broadcasting Corp., aired in August 2020, Watanabe talked about his expertise in World Conflict II and behind-the-scenes politics within the postwar interval.
He despatched a condolence message to the October 2020 funeral for former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, which was organized collectively by the cupboard and the LDP. Watanabe wrote many books.
Amongst his different actions, Watanabe lengthy engaged in operating the Yomiuri Giants skilled baseball workforce since he turned its proprietor in 1996.
He stepped down from the put up in 2004 to take duty for a scouting scandal involving the Giants however returned because the workforce’s chairman the next 12 months.
Watanabe maintained his robust affect within the baseball world till he stop because the Giants’ supreme adviser in 2016 over a playing scandal involving gamers.
Additionally an avid sumo fan, Watanabe served on the Japan Sumo Affiliation’s council answerable for points associated to yokozuna grand champions in skilled sumo between 1991 and 2005. He headed the council for 2 years from 2001.
In talks with reporters, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba paid his tribute to Watanabe, saying: “He was a terrific journalist. Could he relaxation in peace.”
Ishiba stated he reread Watanabe’s e book on the LDP and its factions, noting that the e book is “filled with thought-provoking options on what the LDP is, what factions are, and the way we ought to be going ahead.”
“I wished to ask him extra in regards to the future path for the get together and democracy, and Japan’s path as a pacifist nation,” he stated.
At a press convention, Chief Cupboard Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi expressed his condolences over the passing of Watanabe.
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Calling Watanabe a “residing witness of Japan’s postwar politics who interacted with quite a few politicians,” Hayashi added, “I discovered lots from his compelling items of writing.”
