Name Yasushi Nagao | Role Photographer | |
 | ||
Died May 2, 2009, Minamiizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan Awards World Press Photo of the Year, Pulitzer Prize for Photography, World Press Photo Award for Spot News | ||
Yasushi Nagao (長尾 靖, Nagao Yasushi, May 20, 1930 – May 2, 2009) was a Japanese Pulitzer Prize-winning press photographer.
Nagao is best known for his photograph of Otoya Yamaguchi assassinating Japanese Socialist Party politician Inejiro Asanuma. At the time Nagao was a cameraman working for Mainichi Shimbun; Hisatake Abo, Nagao's picture editor, told Nagao to cover a debate at Hibiya Hall. As Yamaguchi challenged Asanuma, Nagao changed the focus to fifteen feet from ten feet.
Nagao won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and the 1960 World Press Photo of the Year award. The second award allowed Nagao to travel abroad widely, impossible for most Japanese people at the time.
Nagao left the newspaper in 1962 and became a freelance photographer.
Nagao was discovered collapsed in his bathroom on May 2, 2009. It is believed he died of natural causes.