The Most Famous

JOURNALISTS from Japan

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This page contains a list of the greatest Japanese Journalists. The pantheon dataset contains 196 Journalists, 2 of which were born in Japan. This makes Japan the birth place of the 15th most number of Journalists behind Philippines, and Spain.

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Japanese Journalists of all time. This list of famous Japanese Journalists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Kanno Sugako

1. Kanno Sugako (1881 - 1911)

With an HPI of 49.50, Kanno Sugako is the most famous Japanese Journalist.  Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages on wikipedia.

Kanno Sugako (管野 須賀子, June 7, 1881 – January 25, 1911), also known as Kanno Suga (管野 スガ), was a Japanese anarcha-feminist journalist. She was the author of a series of articles about gender oppression, and a defender of freedom and equal rights for men and women. In 1910, she was accused of treason by the Japanese government for her alleged involvement in what became known as the High Treason Incident, aimed at the assassination of Emperor Meiji. Kanno was executed by hanging on January 25, 1911, at the age of 29. She was the first woman with the status of political prisoner to be executed in the history of modern Japan.

Photo of Kenji Goto

2. Kenji Goto (1967 - 2015)

With an HPI of 46.37, Kenji Goto is the 2nd most famous Japanese Journalist.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Kenji Goto (後藤 健二, Gotō Kenji, 23 October 1967 – c. 31 January 2015) was a Japanese freelance video journalist covering wars and conflicts, refugees, poverty, AIDS, and child education around the world. In October 2014, he was captured and held hostage by Islamic State (IS) militants after entering Syria in the hopes of rescuing Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa. On 31 January 2015, he was beheaded by his captors led by Kuwaiti-British militant Jihadi John following the breakdown of negotiations for his release.

Photo of Tsuneko Sasamoto

3. Tsuneko Sasamoto (1914 - 2022)

With an HPI of 46.01, Tsuneko Sasamoto is the 3rd most famous Japanese Journalist.  Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Tsuneko Sasamoto (笹本 恒子, Sasamoto Tsuneko, 1 September 1914 – 15 August 2022) was Japan's first female photojournalist.

Photo of Kenji Nagai

4. Kenji Nagai (1957 - 2007)

With an HPI of 42.66, Kenji Nagai is the 4th most famous Japanese Journalist.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Kenji Nagai (長井 健司, Nagai Kenji, August 27, 1957 – September 27, 2007) was a Japanese photojournalist who took many assignments to conflict zones and dangerous areas around the world. He was shot dead in Myanmar during the Saffron Revolution while filming. Nagai continued to take photographs as he lay wounded on the ground, later dying from gunshot injuries to the chest. The government of Myanmar claimed that the cause of his death was a stray bullet; this was later disproven. Despite carrying his camera during a protest in the Saffron Revolution, it later went missing, supposedly because of a Myammar soldier taking it. In 2023, the camera and footage were returned. He was the only foreign national killed in the protests.

Photo of Mika Yamamoto

5. Mika Yamamoto (1967 - 2012)

With an HPI of 35.15, Mika Yamamoto is the 5th most famous Japanese Journalist.  Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Mika Yamamoto (山本 美香, Yamamoto Mika) (26 May 1967 – 20 August 2012) was an award-winning Japanese video and photojournalist for the news agency Japan Press. Yamamoto was killed on 20 August 2012 while covering the ongoing Syrian Civil War in Aleppo, Syria. She was the first Japanese and fourth foreign journalist killed in the Syrian Civil War that began in March 2011. She was the fifteenth journalist killed in Syria in 2012. Yamamoto was a recipient of the Vaughn-Uyeda Memorial Prize of the Japanese Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association for her reporting of international affairs in 2004.

People

Pantheon has 5 people classified as Japanese journalists born between 1881 and 1967. Of these 5, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased Japanese journalists include Kanno Sugako, Kenji Goto, and Tsuneko Sasamoto. As of April 2024, 3 new Japanese journalists have been added to Pantheon including Kanno Sugako, Tsuneko Sasamoto, and Mika Yamamoto.

Deceased Japanese Journalists

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Newly Added Japanese Journalists (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Journalists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 5 most globally memorable Journalists since 1700.