In memoriam – Gwen Robinson

May 2025 | Obituary

Gwen Akiko Robinson

12 March 1960 – 29 March 2025

Many members of the FCCJ and the wider journalism community were deeply saddened to hear of the death of Gwen Robinson in a hospital in Bangkok last month. She was 65.

Robinson, for decades a towering presence in Asian journalism, drew tributes from far and wide, including from friends and colleagues in Japan.

Following are excerpts from tributes and obituaries. The Number 1 Shimbun will carry a more personal tribute to Gwen in the June issue.

FCCJ President Dan Sloan:

Gwen’s extraordinary career spanned over four decades and multiple continents. A woman of both Australian and Japanese heritage, she brought a rare and compelling global perspective to every newsroom she graced. Her work took her from The Times of London and The Financial Times, at which she had postings in Tokyo, Jakarta, Washington and Bangkok, where she went on to have an influential role as editor-at-large at Nikkei Asia.

She was, as one colleague put it, a “walking internet router,” effortlessly connecting people, ideas, and institutions across borders. Gwen’s bylines included exclusive interviews with leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, Sheikh Hasina, and Joko Widodo, and she reported with insight on Myanmar, Thailand, and events across Southeast Asia.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Gwen was a stalwart of the regional journalism community. She served with distinction as President of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (2019 - 2021) and was a long-standing member of the FCCJ.

Those who knew her will remember her not just as a sharp, fearless journalist but as a fiercely loyal friend, a brilliant conversationalist, and an unmatched source of camaraderie and mentorship. She lived fully, worked relentlessly, and never failed to make time - no matter the hour - for colleagues, contributors, and friends. Gwen was laid to rest earlier this month in Thailand, where friends and colleagues gathered to bid farewell. We now invite all who knew and admired her to come together to celebrate her life, legacy, and the enduring impact she had on journalism in Asia.

Edward Luce in the Financial Times:

Gwen instead created a burgeoning and interlacing galaxy of friends. Many owe their marriages to her. An early evening bilateral drink with Gwen — whether in London’s Groucho Club, the Geronimo bar in Tokyo’s Roppongi district, or the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand where she was president for two years – would end in the small hours and with new acquaintances. She loved to make introductions, exchange gossip, share her passion for food, insights and endless titbits.

She saw through bullshitters like jellyfish. But her kindness to young journalists, friends of friends, those suffering from proverbial broken wings and anyone who sought advice, was borne of a generous nature that dwarfed her occasional acerbity.

“It’s never as good as you hope or as bad as you fear,” she would tell protégés. When Gwen left the FT in 2013 having worked there for nearly two decades from Tokyo, London, Washington and Bangkok, her colleagues were instantly struck by how much less they now knew of what was happening inside the paper.

On her deathbed, Gwen’s brother played her 68 video messages from friends. Though she would have dismissed it as nonsense, the universe seemed also to tip its hand. The day before she died her hospital was shaken by the effects of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that devastated Myanmar. She passed during peak Sakura, Japan’s achingly brief cherry blossom season.

Ken Koyanagi in Nikkei Asia:

Throughout her life, she was a "walking internet router," keeping in touch effectively with every contributor and journalist colleague in Asia and elsewhere. She had friends to hang out with in every city she visited. She enabled Nikkei Asia to take advantage of her vast human nexus to develop its reporting team and contributor pool, as well as to promote Nikkei as a global media outlet.

Gwen also played a critical role in the initial promotion of the new publication [Nikkei Asia]. She often dragged both editorial and marketing staff to conferences and talks where she was moderating panels, taking us to Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and other locations. We would set up a display stand at these events, handing out our magazine and explaining what we were trying to achieve. Gwen was always the most energetic among our team members despite being far more senior than most of us.

She introduced us to numerous business leaders, investors, policymakers and journalists, gradually helping us to gain name recognition among those influencers.

Gwen was much loved by all colleagues and friends due to her unique character that comprised strength, humor and an infamous sense of unpunctuality. She will keep energizing all of us through her assurance of "No worries." She shall be loved by all of us just as much from now on.

Perhaps it is fitting that Gwen left us on March 29 -- the day after Myanmar again became the focus of the world's media due to the devastating earthquake. No doubt, she'd have been on top of the coverage had she still been with us.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand:

“Gwen was an insightful reporter, commentator and editor, and a journalist steeped in Asia from her family background through her academic training to her long and varied career,” said Andrew Gowers, her editor at the Financial Times over 20 years ago. “She was also enormous fun to be with, as anyone who worked with her in the field can attest. Her voice and her zest for life and the region will be widely missed."

“Gwen’s energy and commitment to journalism set an impossibly high bar for many of us,” said Michael Vatikiotis, a former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and former FCCT president. “She was a tireless and effective networker; she was generous to a fault, and she stayed the course when others grew bored.

“Beneath her steely and sometimes truculent exterior lurked a kind and gentle soul with a huge heart and a soft spot for the underdog. At Nikkei, Gwen helped many of us get published in an increasingly sparse and frugal news environment. She was a strict editor with strong views of her own -- but that’s what good writers need. Gwen’s devotion to the FCCT, carrying us all through the pandemic with flair and skill, will long be remembered.”

Thitinan Pongsudhirak in the Bangkok Post:

Working with Robinson meant working late. She was nocturnal and didn't seem to sleep much, a testament to her approach towards living beyond the fullest to get the full. She seemed more energised as more emailing and editing went back and forth in the wee hours with editors in UK and US time zones. Two years later, Robinson played a significant role in the Nikkei's acquisition of and marriage with the FT. For her, it was the best of both worlds, her old paper with her deep Japanese roots hitching with the UK broadsheet where she had spent her best journalist years. Unsurprisingly, she retained an editorial portfolio until the very end as editor-at-large at what is now known as Nikkei Asia.

Robinson was adored by her legions of friends and fans everywhere, even though she almost always ran late to whatever it was that she was supposed to be doing. She had a way of not missing a beat in a seminar or conversation, even though she was texting half the time. Robinson had a way of growing on people -- ambassadors, academics, development specialists, activists of all stripes, businesspeople, office assistants, artists, singers, socialites, hoteliers, restauranteurs, motorbike taxi drivers, among others -- once people met her, they were interested in getting to know her.

Compiled by Justin McCurry