Yomiuri Shimbun Group Head Tsuneo Watanabe Dies at 98

   Tokyo, Dec. 19 (Jiji Press)--Tsuneo Watanabe, head of Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings and editor-in-chief of the major Japanese newspaper publisher, died of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital in the small hours of Thursday. He was 98.
   After graduating from the University of Tokyo, Watanabe, a native of Tokyo, joined Yomiuri Shimbun in 1950.
   He became Yomiuri Shimbun president in 1991 after working as a political news reporter, head of the newspaper's Washington bureau, and deputy head of its editorial division and chief of the political news department.
   In 2002, he assumed the presidency of Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings in line with the newspaper publisher's transition to a holding company structure. Watanabe then served as Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings chairman between January 2004 and June 2016.
   He headed the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association from June 1999 to June 2003. He was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in 2008.

(2024/12/19-12:18)