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Toei Group Chairman Yusuke Okada Passes Away at 71
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Toei announced on Friday that Toei Group chairman Yūsuke Okada (birth name: Tsuyoshi Okada) passed away on Wednesday. He was 71.
Entertainment news website Variety reported on Friday that Okada passed away due to aortic dissection.
Okada was born in 1949, and he joined Toei in 1988. He became a board member in 1992, then a managing director in 2000, and then the president and CEO in 2002. In 2014 he moved to the position of representative director and group chairman. At the time of his death, he was also a managing director for Toei Animation.
Okada was an actor and producer before he started working for Toei. He was the son of Shigeru Okada, who served as president of Toei for 22 years and as chairman for nine more years. Shigeru Okada passed away in 2011.
Yūsuke Okada also previously served as the chairman of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, and became the honorary chairman of the Japan Academy earlier this year.
Sources: Toei, Toei Animation, Variety (Mark Schilling), Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo) via The Tokusatsu Network
