Minegishi was one of the original members of AKB48 when it was launched by producer Yasushi Akimoto in 2005.

BBC: AKB48 pop star shaves head after breaking band rules

In 1999, I went to Toyama, Japan, to briefly train with my uncle Yasushi Naoe, who was a kaiseki chef for over 50 years.

FORBES: Miami Now Home To Five-Star Sushi Master

He replaced Masaru Hayami, who had in most important respects followed the lead of his two predecessors, Yasuo Matsushita and Yasushi Mieno, both hard-money men.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood

This month, Yasushi Akashi, a special envoy from Japan, had to cancel a planned peace mission to Sri Lanka when Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tigers' elusive and ruthless supremo, refused to meet him.

ECONOMIST: Sri Lanka at war

"The Bank of Japan always insisted that they have already done everything they can do, so this means that any minor change of monetary policy cannot be confident, " CSFB's Yasushi Okada told the BBC's World Business Report.

BBC: A chart of the dollar-yen exchange rate