was a Japanese

bureaucrat A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government. The term ''bureaucrat'' derives from "bureaucracy", ...

and the first President of the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field office ...

(ADB). He was in office from 24 November 1966 to 24 November 1972. Watanabe was considered to be the "father" of ADB, as it was under his leadership that many of ADB's policies and targets were established, the first bond was issued in the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

in 1969, and in September 1972, donors agreed to set up ADB's multilateral source of concessional lending, the Asian Development Fund. He served as President of ADB from its inception in 1966 to 1972. After resigning from ADB, Watanabe took on a number of roles including advisor to the

Bank of Tokyo was a Japanese foreign exchange market, foreign exchange bank that operated from 1946 to 1996. In January 1996, it merged with Mitsubishi Bank to form The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (now MUFG Bank). Its headquarters was in the Nihonbashi district o ...

, President of the

Japan Credit Rating Agency The Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR), established in 1985, is a Japanese financial services company which publishes credit ratings to Japanese companies, local governments, and other interested parties. The company is one of the Japanese credit r ...

(JCRA), and honorary chairman of Japan Silver Volunteers Inc. He was also the first Japanese chairman of the

Trilateral Commission The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973 principally by American banker and philanthropist David ...

. His book of memoirs of ADB "Towards a New Asia" was published in 1973. Watanabe Takeshi died in Tokyo on Monday 23 August 2010, at the age of 104.

References

1906 births 2010 deaths Japanese centenarians Men centenarians {{japan-bio-stub