Toru Takahashi (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 高橋徹 ''Takahashi Tōru''; January 1941 – 20 December 2022) was a Japanese computer network researcher and businessman. He was credited with contributing to the spread of the Internet into

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and the rest of Asia in the 1990s and was a pivotal figure in the early commercial development of the Internet. For this reason, he was often called the "Father of the Internet" in Japan. Takahashi was born in

Utsunomiya is the capital and largest city of Tochigi Prefecture in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 513,584, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Utsunomiya is famous for its ''gyoza'' ...

Tochigi Prefecture is a landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,897,649 (1 June 2023) and has a geographic area of 6,408 Square kilometre, km2 (2,474 Square mile, sq mi ...

in 1941. After graduating from the Faculty of Arts at

Tohoku University is a public research university in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. It is colloquially referred to as or . Established in 1907 as the third of the Imperial Universities, after the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, it initially focused on sc ...

in 1964, he worked as a contributing editor and writer. Since 1982, he has been involved in marketing of Videotex. Since 1986, he has worked on a high-speed

LAN Lan or LAN may refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in space * ...

construction project using

UNIX Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

workstations and routers. Since 1987, he began researching the Internet and assumed office as a member of the Japan Unix Users Association. In 1993, he became secretary general at the time of establishing the Japan Internet Association and became its chairman in 1997. In 1994, he established the Tokyo Internet ISP and became its president. In 2001, when the Japan Internet Association merged with the Electronic Network Council and became the Foundation Internet Association, he became the deputy chief of Foundation Internet Association, and in 2002 became the chairperson of the Asia Pacific Internet Association, and later became a director. In 2002, Takahashi received the

Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications The is a member of the Cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The minister is also a statutory member of the National Security Council (Japan), National Security Council, and ...

Minister's Award for Information and Communication. In 2012, he was chosen as the only Japanese person among the 33 members of the

Internet Society The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American non-profit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. It has offices in Reston, Virginia, United States, and Geneva, Switzerland. Organization The Internet Society ...

Internet Hall of Fame The Internet Hall of Fame is an honorary lifetime achievement award administered by the Internet Society (ISOC) in recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the Internet. Overview ...

in the Global Connectors category for his contributions in spreading the Internet into Japan and the rest of Asia. Takahashi died on 20 December 2022, at the age of 81.

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* - Biography, introduction of books, etc. {{DEFAULTSORT:Takahashi, Toru 1941 births 2022 deaths People from Utsunomiya, Tochigi Japanese Internet celebrities Japanese computer scientists Japanese male writers Japanese businesspeople Tohoku University alumni Internet pioneers Scientists from Tochigi Prefecture