By Joe Koizumi

On Christmas Eve when we, in Japan, see the worst ever of the Covid-19 pandemic with 888 infections in our capital Tokyo and 3,329 nationwide just as for today, a mournful funeral service of promoter/manager Jitsuo Harada (not Masahiko “Fighting” Harada) took place in Osaka on Thursday.

Jitsuo, 79, the manager of WBC top ranked light-flyweight contender Tetsuya Hisada, passed away on Monday (December 21). He, as a co-promoter along with Shinsei Promotions, had been endeavoring to stage the WBC title bout of defending champ Kenshiro Teraji and his boxer Hisada in Osaka on December 19, but it was cancelled due to Teraji’s personal problem.

Jitsuo was an amateur boxer at Kinki University, and didn’t turn professional but served as trainer at Taiho Gym and then became independent by opening his own Harada Gym in Osaka in 1987. His younger brother Tatsumi Harada (AKA Ryu Fukita) was a hard-punching southpaw who once acquired the OPBF 130-pound belt by finishing Moon-Suk Choi in eleven rounds in Korea in 1979.

Jitsuo cultivated some good boxers such as Katsumi Komiyama (who failed to win the WBA 108-pound belt from Myung-Woo Yuh in Korea), his son Tsuyoshi Harada (who was unsuccessful in winning the WBC 122-pound title from Daniel Zaragoza in Osaka in 1996) and Tetsuya Hisada (who couldn’t win the WBA 108-pound diadem from compatriot Hiroto Kyoguchi in October last year).

Jitsuo suffered cancer of esophagus this August and was intensively under radiation treatment for months. Jitsuo, a good athlete despite his age, loved jogging and kept working with his young boxers at his gym. May his soul rest in peace.