Bob Neff Focused Reporting On Japan 'Revisionists'

“I would like to express my undying gratitude for his [Neff's] clear perception of the reality of US-Japan trade relations in the 1980s,” Prestowitz wrote in an email.“Of all the major journalists, he was the only one to understand clearly and fully what was going on. I will miss him tremendously.”

Japan's financial bubble lost air in the early 1990s and some critics said the revisionists had been wrong. The emergence of China in some ways also eclipsed the Japanese challenge. But Japan did not abandon its business and political model.

Neff was part of a golden age of magazine journalism. He circled the globe with postings in Honolulu, Los Angeles, Tokyo, London and New York. American news organizations maintained extensive networks of foreign correspondents, and Neff was one of the most highly respected and personable practitioners.

Steven Shepard, who was the editor-in-chief of Business Week from 1984 to 2005, was effusive in his praise of Neff.“A great journalist, a wonderful man,” Shepard posted.“I have many fond memories of visits to Tokyo and absorbing a bit of his great understanding of the country. I cherished our friendship.”

Neff was also known for helping nourish the careers of less-experienced journalists, both those who worked for him and those who did not. He mentored many new reporters who arrived in Japan in the 1980s to tell the stories of Japan's economic rise; the value of its currency, the yen; its technological prowess and, inevitably, its trade conflicts.

Neff attended the University of Michigan from 1965 to 1969. There he met Urban Lehner, who would become both a lifelong friend and a journalistic competitor. Neff became Tokyo bureau chief for BusinessWeek magazine whereas Lehner became bureau chief in Tokyo for the Wall Street Journal and also served as editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal.

Neff was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and spent two years doing hospital work as his form of national service. After that, he attended the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He started his career at Pacific Business News in Honolulu, before BusinessWeek hired him in its Los Angeles bureau in 1977. The McGraw-Hill Companies owned BusinessWeek as well as specialty trade magazines and a wire service, McGraw-Hill News.

Taking advantage of his Japanese language ability, McGraw-Hill transferred Neff to the news service office in Tokyo in 1979. He rose to become bureau chief.

After a stint in London editing International Management magazine, Neff moved to New York in 1987 as editor of the international edition of BusinesssWeek. He moved back to Tokyo in 1989 as that magazine's bureau chief, a job he held until the mid-1990s.
He later wrote and edited for other magazines including Forbes and Fortune and left journalism briefly to serve as managing director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

A major Neff accomplishment was his authorship of a famous guide to the best among Japan's hundreds of onsen, or hot baths, entitled“Japan's Hidden Hot Springs.” Friend Lehner and his family traveled with Neff and wife Fumiko on a tour of some hot springs that Lehner would write about in the Asian Wall Street Journal.

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Lehner said Neff was a master at finding onsen that were quaint and affordable, often offering views of mountains from the steamy hot baths. The leading Japanese-owned English-language newspaper, the Japan Times, wrote that Neff was“a discriminating bather.”

Neff also was known for his encyclopedic knowledge of Tokyo's lively nightlife. He had a particular love of karaoke, the Japanese practice of singing in the evening – often over drinks.“Many a Japanese contact told me how well Bob could sing those songs, and how much they enjoyed going out drinking with him,” recalls Leslie Helm, who worked for Neff in the BusinessWeek bureau.

Neff was active in the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. He was secretary in 1981-82 and president in 1998-99. He also served as co-chair of the club's food and beverage committee – which meant that he and the other co-chair, the late Bob Kirschenbaum (they were known to one and all as the Two Bobs), sampled all food items and beverages before they appeared on any menu.

Neff served on other committees as well. Friend and fellow journalist Toshio Aritake remembers that Neff was“a fixture at the correspondents' table and always at the center of the most heated debates.”

A family funeral was held in Hayama on August 2. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan plans to host a memorial evening in September.

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