Oikawa Appointed Editor-in-Chief of Yomiuri Group; System Led by 3 Top Executives Maintained

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:02 JST, May 29, 2025

The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, The Yomiuri Shimbun, the Yomiuri Giants, Chuokoron-Shinsha, Inc. and Yomiuri Land, Co. each held meetings of their boards of directors Tuesday, where they approved their draft earnings results for fiscal 2024 and decided on executive appointments, among other matters.

The decisions will be finalized at their general shareholders meetings and subsequent boards of directors meetings scheduled for June 10.

The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings decided to appoint Senior Deputy Editor-in-Chief Shoichi Oikawa as editor-in-chief, following the passing in December of Tsuneo Watanabe, who had served as representative director and editor-in-chief of the Yomiuri group. Oikawa will retain the post of chairman of the board and continue to be in charge of international operations, concurrently serving as editor-in-chief of The Japan News. President Toshikazu Yamaguchi, in charge of circulation, will assume the post of senior deputy editor-in-chief.

The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings will reappoint Oikawa and Yamaguchi to the post of representative director, while appointing Vice President Akitoshi Muraoka, director who oversees operation management, network, digital transformation and Tokyo operations, to representative director. The system in which three representative directors lead the group will be maintained.

At The Yomiuri Shimbun, Junichi Abe, senior managing director in charge of business and the Innovation Headquarters, will be promoted to director and vice president in charge of business and the Innovation Headquarters. Mitsugu Yagasaki, senior managing director in charge of circulation, will be promoted to director and vice president in charge of circulation. Hidenori Iwakami, director and chief officer of the Circulation Bureau, will be promoted to managing director in charge of Yomiuri Travel Service Co.

At the Yomiuri Giants, Toru Kunimatsu will be reappointed to the post of representative director and president.

At Chuokoron-Shinsha, Junichi Abe will be reappointed to the post of representative director and president.

At Yomiuri Land, Takeshi Mizoguchi will be reappointed to the post of representative director and president.

Profile: Shoichi Oikawa

Oikawa, 83, is a native of Tokyo who joined The Yomiuri Shimbun in 1964 after graduating from Waseda University’s School of Political Science and Economics.

He has held his current post since September 2019, after serving in a number of positions. He has concurrently served as director and chairman of the editorial board at The Yomiuri Shimbun since June 2020.

Oikawa’s past roles include editor of the Political News Department; chief officer of the Yomiuri Research Institute; and director and managing editor at The Yomiuri Shimbun. He also served as representative director and president of The Yomiuri Shimbun Osaka. At The Yomiuri Shimbun, he also served as representative director and president and executive editor. At The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, he served as director, executive adviser and senior deputy editor-in-chief.