Yukio Okamoto, a diplomacy analyst who had been an adviser to past prime ministers, died on April 24 after contracting coronavirus, a government source said Thursday. He was 74.
Okamoto, a former Foreign Ministry official, had also been a senior research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for International Studies. He also taught at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.
In Washington, experts on Japan who formerly served in the U.S. government mourned the loss of Okamoto, who was described as having "steered the U.S.-Japan alliance over many decades" through both good and bad times in a commentary released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.