Masami Tashiro, managing director of Keizai Koho Center, the public relations arm of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), died of liver cancer Wednesday. He was 55.

A graduate of Hitotsubashi University, Tashiro joined the then Japan Federation of Business Organizations (Keidanren) in 1976. After serving as an aide to then Keidanren Chairman Yoshihiro Inayama in the early 1980s, he mainly worked in the business lobby's international economics division before moving to Keizai Koho Center in 1996.

Since last month, Tashiro had been concurrently serving as executive senior fellow at the 21st Century Public Policy Institute think tank.

His wake will be held from 6 p.m. Friday and his funeral from 11 a.m. Saturday, both at Aizenin Kaikan in Tokyo's Nerima Ward.