Kaz Matsuda NHK & BBC, RIP

Sad to discover (rather belately) that Kaz Matsuda has passed away in Tokyo in June from a heart tumour. I knew him as a producer of a media show on NHK Radio Japan (DX Corner) and he was very kind to me when I first visited Tokyo in 1985. He then went to Radio Australia on an exchange scheme, before going back to Tokyo in 2001 to start a bureau that provided Japanese translations to BBC World TV. The BBC later bought the company and made Kaz their Managing Director of BBC World News in Japan. He is survived by his wife and son. He understood more than many in NHK about creative international broadcasting and went on to be highly regarded within the BBC for maintaining editorial standards. No wonder 400 attended a memorial service in Tokyo last month. He was someone who really understood how to communicate across borders and across cultures.