Ex-Itochu Pres., Japan Envoy to China Uichiro Niwa Dies at 86

Tokyo, Jan. 8 (Jiji Press)–Uichiro Niwa, former president of Japanese trading house Itochu Corp. and the first individual from the private sector to be appointed Japanese ambassador to China, died of natural causes on Dec. 24, 2025. He was 86. A native of the central Japan city of Nagoya, Niwa occupied the posts of Itochu president and chairman between 1998 and 2010. As the company’s leader, he decided to address the negative legacies left behind from the country’s asset-driven bubble economy, which collapsed in the early 1990s. In June 2010, he was appointed Japanese ambassador to China, becoming the first such envoy from the private sector since the 1972 diplomatic normalization between the two countries. His appointment had reflected hopes for a wider economic exchange between Japan and China, given his profile as a key person from a major Japanese trading house with strong connections with China. Shortly after he assumed the diplomatic position, however, a collision occurred between Japan Coast Guard patrol ships and a Chinese fishing boat in waters off the Senkaku Islands in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa. The incident soon led to China imposing a de facto suspension on rare earth exports to Japan. In 2012, Japan-China ties soured even further over the sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which are claimed by China. Amid heightened tensions in the wake of large anti-Japanese protests staged throughout China, Niwa voiced concerns over the Tokyo metropolitan government’s plan to purchase the islands, then private-owned, resulting in calls among both Japanese ruling and opposition parties for his dismissal. He stepped down later that year. Niwa continued to work on improving bilateral ties in his later years, including suggesting in 2015 a ceremony to commemorate the normalization of diplomatic ties. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]