lit a candle 2h agowait what. I just watched an NHK World food show last night and now I'm reading he died at 75. didn't even know his name until today but that channel got me through a lot of lonely nights
Their story
Nobuo Inaba was a Japanese banker, company director and public broadcaster who rose from the Bank of Japan to chair Ricoh and then lead NHK as its 24th president. He died of aspiration pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital on 6 October 2026, aged 75. NHK announced his death a week…
Nobuo Inaba was a Japanese banker, company director and public broadcaster who rose from the Bank of Japan to chair Ricoh and then lead NHK as its 24th president. He died of aspiration pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital on 6 October 2026, aged 75. NHK announced his death a week later.
Inaba was born on 11 November 1950 in Ito, Shizuoka Prefecture, and spent much of his childhood in Itabashi, Tokyo, where his father worked as a map draughtsman. He attended the secondary schools that are now Junior and Senior High School at Komaba, University of Tsukuba, then graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Economics in 1974 after a year of retaking entrance exams when campus unrest cancelled the previous sitting.
He joined the Bank of Japan that same year and spent more than three decades at the central bank. He held posts including securities section chief in the business department, counsellor for policy planning, director general of the system information department and director general of the examination department. In 2004 he became an executive director, and from 2005 he spent a year as general manager of the Osaka branch. Colleagues regarded him as a future governor candidate before he left the bank in 2008.
From 2008 Inaba served Ricoh Company as executive adviser, then as head of its Institute of Economic and Social Research, senior managing director and chair of the board from 2017, where he pressed corporate governance reform. On 25 January 2023 he succeeded Terunobu Maeda as president of NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation, for a three year term.
At NHK he steered the broadcaster through a sharp fall in receiving fee income after a cut of about one tenth in October 2023, cutting costs while trying to protect programme quality. He made internet distribution a mandatory NHK duty and launched the NHK One service in October 2025, which he later called a historic step. He also, on his own initiative, apologised to former residents of Hashima Island (Gunkanjima) over NHK's 1955 documentary Midori naki shima after a settlement with them. In May 2025 he disclosed early stage lung cancer but stayed in post until his term ended on 24 January 2026.
Current NHK president Tatsuhiko Inoue said Inaba had steered the organisation in a turbulent period with insight and a strong sense of responsibility drawn from his Bank of Japan and private sector career. Inaba hoped NHK would keep contributing to healthy democracy by meeting the expectations of its audience.
Biography adapted from NHK World, Jiji Press, The Japan Times, Sankei Shimbun, ORICON/NHK notice and Japanese Wikipedia (稲葉延雄).
In their own words
“NHK needs to continue providing high quality news, documentaries and entertainment content to build public trust.”
On taking office as NHK president, January 2023
“Steered NHK in its turbulent period with the profound insight and strong sense of responsibility he cultivated during his career at the BOJ and in the private sector.”
Tribute by current NHK president Tatsuhiko Inoue, October 2026
Photos
1Nobuo Inaba at the first Content Industry Public-Private Council, 9 September 2024
by People Forever
