Obituaries

Former Japan Ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa, Who Dealt With Senkaku Issues, Dies at 86 (Update)

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Japanese Ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa holds a farewell press conference at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Nov. 26, 2012.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

21:22 JST, January 8, 2026

Uichiro Niwa, the former president of Itochu Corp. and a former ambassador to China, died of natural causes on Dec. 24, 2025. He was 86.

Born in 1939 in Aichi Prefecture, Niwa joined Itochu Corp. in 1962 after graduating from the School of Law at Nagoya University. He worked primarily in the food division and became president of the company in 1998.

In the financial results for the fiscal year ending in March 2000, he decisively dealt with approximately ¥400 billion worth of nonperforming loans that had piled up during the collapse of the bubble economy, including those related to real estate assets. He quickly restored the company’s performance by focusing management resources on such sectors as food and lifestyle-related operations.

After becoming chairman in 2004, he served as a private-sector member of the government’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, as well as chairman of the council to promote decentralization reform.

As president and chairman of Itochu, he actively pursued trade and investment with China, garnering attention for his extensive network of connections with Chinese government officials. In 2010, as part of the Democratic Party of Japan administration’s initiative to “break away from dependence on bureaucrats,” Niwa became the first private citizen to be named Japanese ambassador to China since the end of World War II.

Shortly after taking office, an incident occurred off the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture in which a Chinese fishing vessel collided with a Japan Coast Guard patrol ship. Despite the severe deterioration of Japan-China relations over the incident, he worked to improve the situation.

However, regarding the Tokyo Metropolitan government’s plan to purchase the islands, his expression of concern that “it would plunge Japan-China relations into an extremely grave crisis” was viewed as problematic, leading to his resignation in 2012 after just over two years in office. From 2015 to 2024, he served as chairman of the Japan-China Friendship Association.

Niwa’s funeral was held privately on Jan. 5, with only family members present.