Overview

• He died on August 22 of pneumonia at age 94, and funeral arrangements remain undecided.
• Elected in 1980, he served three terms as Shimabara mayor and led the city through the 1990–91 eruption.
• After a June 3, 1991 pyroclastic flow left 43 people dead or missing, he declared a legally enforced urban warning zone on June 7, the first of its kind in Japan.
• His evacuation order heightened disputes over disaster loss compensation but is credited with minimizing subsequent human casualties.
• Following his 1992 departure from office, he delivered more than 1,000 lectures, received the Order of the Sacred Treasure (Fourth Class) in 2001, and from 2002 served as honorary director of the Unzen Disaster Memorial Museum, whose director pledged to continue sharing the lessons.