Kenya Mizukami died he was 83

Kenya Mizukami was a Japanese journalist who edited one of the world’s most widely read newspapers and whose dispatches in the 1950s gave ordinary Japanese an elegantly crafted picture of Europe as it recovered from the Second World War.

Mizukami, simultaneously an ardent Anglophile and a sincere Francophile, was known across the sprawling Yomiuri media group for his cosmopolitan tastes and natural gift for languages. That flair for language, along with his reputation as a straight-talking, uncomplicated newsman, set him apart somewhat from the traditional grandees of the Yomiuri – a cadre known for its close alignment with the centre-right Liberal Democratic Party that has controlled Japan since 1955.

A producer of attractive, thoughtful reportage, Mizukami adopted a managerial style of encouraging the same in his staff: he ordered correspondents to focus their energies on generating “one interesting story per week, rather than churning out a boring story every day”. Over the course of his reporting career he stuck closely to his own advice, seeking exciting stories wherever possible. In 1967 he wrote dispatches from Tel Aviv on the unfolding Arab-Israeli war. In the space of one April fortnight in 1986 he pulled off the remarkable coup of securing exclusive interviews with both President Reagan and President Mitterrand of France.

Mizukami joined the Yomiuri Shimbun group as a reporter while Japan was still under American occupation. His background in international studies, which he pursued at Tokyo University, prepared him for life as a foreign correspondent, and he was fortunate that this aptitude was recognised early by his editors. Within seven years of joining — comparatively quick for a young journalist — he was posted to Geneva for a few months, before taking up the prestigious post of London correspondent.

Friends recall Mizukami’s exceptionally fond memories of those first four years in London, where he became a regular golfer and a devotee of the dog races. Later in his career, when he returned to Britain as London bureau chief and a fully fledged editor, he famously insisted that his staff learn the behaviour of the British gentleman, paying particular attention to their table manners.

In Paris, where Mizukami worked as a correspondent in the late 1950s, the experience was somewhat different. Here, the young reporter developed a love for French literary and artistic culture that would follow him for the rest of his life. As Mizukami rose through Yomiuri’s regimented hierarchy — first as foreign editor, then in a variety of management roles — the group itself became a generous sponsor of all things French and cultural. In October 2008 the French Ministry of Culture — describing him as “above all, a great journalist”, named him Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his work in building cultural bridges between France and Japan. He helped to organise an exhibition of works by Matisse in 2004 and another of Monet in 2007.

Having joined Yomiuri Shimbun in 1947, Mizukami was appointed foreign editor in 1969, managing editor in 1982 and vice-president in 1990. He was appointed president of Yomiuri Shimbun, Osaka, in 1992 and became its chairman in 1997. In 2002 he assumed the post of chairman of the board of Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, and in 2004 he became chairman of the group executive committee. He served as chairman of the Japan National Press Club for just under four years from 1989.

Mizukami is survived by his wife, Fujiko, and their two children.