is a Japanese Canadian

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. He is a

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

correspondent for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', after holding the position as Bureau Chief in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

, Jakarta,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

and

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, making it the sixth most populous city p ...

. He was a member of ''The New York Times'' reporting team that received the 2015

Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, including United Nations correspondence. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic R ...

for coverage of the 2014

Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and S ...

. Team members named by The Times were Pam Belluck,

Helene Cooper Helene Cooper (born April 22, 1966) is a Liberian-born American journalist who is a Pentagon correspondent for ''The New York Times''. Before that, she was the paper's White House correspondent in Washington, D.C. She joined the ''Times'' in 2004 ...

Sheri Fink Sheri Fink is an American journalist who writes about health, medicine and science. She received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting "for a story that chronicles the urgent life-and-death decisions made by one hospital’s exhau ...

, Adam Nossiter, Onishi,

Kevin Sack Kevin Sack, an American journalist, is a senior reporter for ''The New York Times''. Sack shared a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2001 for a ''New York Times'' series on race. While at The Los Angeles Times, he received the 2003 Pulitzer ...

, and

Ben C. Solomon Ben C. Solomon (born 1987) is an American filmmaker and journalist. He is currently an international correspondent for VICE News. He was the inaugural filmmaker-in-residence at ''Frontline'' after spending nine years as a foreign correspondent ...

. In November 2018, Onishi wrote an article about the lonely deaths of the elderly in Japan, titled "A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death" for which he was nominated as a 2018

Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been awarded since 1979 for a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to high lite ...

Finalist. Readers thanked Norimitsu for his "profoundly moving piece" about two people who live alone in a danchi, a sprawling government apartment complex, outside Tokyo.

Career

Onishi was born in Ichikawa,

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to t ...

, Japan. When he was four years old, Onishi and his family immigrated to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, where he attended college Jean-de-Brébeuf. He attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

and served as the chief editor of the student newspaper."ひと日系人ではじめてのニューヨーク・タイムズ誌東京支局長ノリミツ・オオニシ　さん　(34)",

Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition a ...

, September 21, 2003. Onishi was a reporter for ''

The Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

'' from 1992 until 1993. In December 1993, he joined ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' where he began as police reporter from January to July 1994 and city weekly reporter from July 1994 to March 1995. He went on to become the

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

bureau chief from March 1995 to September 1997 and later the

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

bureau chief from 1998 to 2002. Onishi became the

bureau chief for the ''Times'' in August 2003. In 2008, he was transferred to head the Southeast Asia bureau in Jakarta;

Martin Fackler Martin L. Fackler (1933–2015) was an American military officer, surgeon and wound ballistics expert. He served in the U.S Navy from 1960 to 1975 and in the U.S. Army from 1975 to 1991. He was a field surgeon at the Naval Support Hospitals ...

succeeded him as chief of the Tokyo bureau. In 2012, he was part of a team of reporters, which also included Fackler and

Hiroko Tabuchi Hiroko Tabuchi is an American climate journalist who has reported from Japan and the United States, and is known for her coverage of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 and its aftermath. She has worked for The New York Times since 200 ...

, that was named as finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for its investigative coverage of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. In September and October 2014, Onishi reported on the

ebola virus epidemic in West Africa The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and S ...

from Liberia. Since July 2019, he is a

correspondent. Onishi received the 2020 Gerald Loeb Award for Breaking News for "Crash in Ethiopia".

Criticism

Conservatives in Japan such as Kohyu Nishimura and Yoshihisa Komori, accuse Onishi of holding a leftist perspective and having a strong "anti-Japan" bias, which, they suggest, helps foster a vilified image of Japan abroad. This is partially due to Onishi criticisms of Japan’s largest far-right organisation and lobby

Nippon Kaigi The Right side up ...

, in which members include prominent Japanese politicians including Prime Ministers. Another article, "Letter from Asia: Why Japan Seems Content to Be Run by One Party" provoked an official objection statement from the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan The is an executive department of the Government of Japan, and is responsible for the country's foreign policy and international relations. The ministry was established by the second term of the third article of the National Government Organi ...

for being "an incorrect article." In it, Onishi referred to Japan's democracy as an "illusion" and immature, comparing its government to that of

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

and China. His article on December 17, 2006, "Japan Rightists Fan Fury Over North Korea Abductions," was also criticized by

Kyoko Nakayama is a Japanese politician and a former leader of the Party for Japanese Kokoro. In the past she has been a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Sunrise Party of Japan and Japan Restoration Party and is serving her second term as a memb ...

, Special Adviser to the Japanese Prime Minister on Abduction. Thomas H. Snitch, a former professor of American University also suggested that Onishi's coverage on Japan's effort to deal with the issue of the

North Korean abductions of Japanese Abductions of Japanese citizens from Japan by agents of the North Korean government took place during a period of six years from 1977 to 1983. Although only 17 Japanese (eight men and nine women) are officially recognized by the Japanese governm ...

is influenced by political bias. Some Japanese conservatives even made unproven claims that Onishi is a naturalized Japanese citizen of Korean descent.

References

External links

Contributed articles by Norimitsu Onishi in the New York Times

Pulitzer Prize-winning articles on Ebola {{DEFAULTSORT:Onishi, Norimitsu Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian expatriate journalists in the United States Canadian male journalists Detroit Free Press people Japanese emigrants to Canada The New York Times writers People from Ichikawa, Chiba Princeton University alumni Gerald Loeb Award winners for Breaking News