On July 1, 2000 (May 30, 2000, the lunar calendar), Utsunomiya Tokuma, a famous Japan-China friendship figure, passed away. On July 1, 2000, Utsunomiya Tokuma, a famous Japan-China friendship figure, died of pneumonia at Sagamihara City Hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture. He was 93 years old. Utsunomiya Tokuma served as the president of the Japan-China Friendship Association during his lifetime and was the honorary president of the association before his death. He has always fully advocated Japan-China friendship and is recognized as one of the "well-diggers for the cause of Japan-China friendship." In 1991, he was awarded the honorary title of "People's Friendship Messenger" by the China People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. Utsunomiya Tokuma is a famous peace fighter in Japanese politics. He began politics in 1952 and was elected to the House of Representatives 10 consecutive times. In the early 1970s, as the backbone of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians Alliance, he made every effort to restore the legal seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations and to realize the early normalization of diplomatic relations with China. In 1976, he resigned from the Liberal Democratic Party because he was dissatisfied with the "money-power politics" and resigned as a member of the House of Representatives. In 1980, Utsunomiya ran for the Senate and was elected. Later, he founded the "Utsunomiya Disarmament Research Office" and the monthly magazine "Disarmament Issues Information" at his own expense. The magazine published a large number of articles criticizing Japan's whitewashing of its history of aggression and Japan's militarist tendencies.