WASHINGTON: U.S. media lauded the late former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, with The Wall Street Journal, in its article reporting on his death on Friday at the age of 101, calling him "one of its (Japan's) most influential prime ministers."
With Nakasone serving as prime minister between November 1982 and November 1987, the business-focused daily noted his close bond with then U.S. President Ronald Reagan, dubbed the "Ron-Yasu" relationship, which it said was "a precedent for the close personal ties" enjoyed by current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump.
The paper also introduced a comment by Nakasone describing Japan as the United States' "unsinkable aircraft carrier." Under Nakasone's watch, "Japan became the world's largest creditor nation and was increasingly viewed as a rival to the U.S. for global economic supremacy," it said.
The New York Times called Nakasone "one of the few Japanese prime ministers to win recognition on the world stage." In a photo taken at the May 1983 Group of Seven summit held in Williamsburg, Virginia, Nakasone, "unlike his fairly colorless predecessors, who invariably stood on the edge of group photos of world leaders," squeezed himself in between Reagan and then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, it said.
Nakasone had largely been out of the spotlight in recent years, after Reagan died in 2004. On the occasion of his 100th birthday in May 2018, several media outlets reported on Nakasone's routine of checking the morning newspaper and reading books.
Jiji Press