Charles Smith, who served as Tokyo bureau chief of the Financial Times in the 1970s and of the Far East Economic Review in the 1980s, passed away at the age of 82 Friday of acute respiratory failure, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan said Monday.
FCCJ President Khaldon Azhari said in a statement Smith had been suffering from malignant lymphoma since early 2015.
A classics scholar from Oxford University, Smith started working as a reporter at an English-language magazine in Argentina. He served as the Financial Times' Tokyo bureau chief between 1973 and 1984. He then joined the Far East Economic Review, which he served until 1995 as Tokyo bureau chief and as regional editor based in Hong Kong.
After leaving the Far East Economic Review he wrote for several financial publications, notably Institutional Investor, until he retired from day-to-day journalism.
Smith, who had 30 years of experience as a reporter in Japan, was also a gifted musician.
Despite his illness in recent years he maintained his cello playing, much to the delight of his many musical friends, Azhari said.