Funeral Details

Hidemasa Yamakawa

Chicago, IL – Hidemasa Yamakawa, 61, passed away at Lutheran General Hospital on Friday, May 3, 2024, after more than a year-long battle with lymphoma. He was born July 21, 1962, in Ishigaki, Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, the son of Shinsaburo and Reiko Yamakawa.

Mr. Yamakawa made a formidable life journey from the small island of Ishigaki to a career in finance on Wall Street, followed by financial positions with JP Morgan, Citibank, and PPMA, selling asset management products and managing portfolios totaling billions. Along the way he touched and enriched the lives of many people in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States, where he became a citizen in 2004.

After completing high school on Ishigaki Island, Mr. Yamakawa attended the University of Japan in Tokyo where he earned a bachelor’s degree in law. He then joined the Japanese foreign service and was posted to Lagos, Nigeria where he met his wife, Suzanne E. Scott, an American, working at the Japanese Embassy. He went on to earn a Masters of International Affairs at Columbia University’s SIPA program in New York City in 1992, and a Sloan Program MBA at London Business School in 1998. Mr. and Mrs. Yamakawa resided in West Africa for roughly four years from 1993 to 1997, and New York City from 1999 until 2008, when Mr. Yamakawa moved to Chicago. Suzanne followed to join him there in 2012. They had been married 39 years at the time of Mr. Yamakawa’s death.

His appreciation for the beauty of life sustained him while working long hours in finance. He was fiercely attuned to the notion of ‘beauty,’ particularly the blooming of the world each Spring, and the inner beauty of the people he met along his journey. “Hide” (He Day), as his friends knew him, was loved for his infectious laugh, smile, and generous spirit. His success in finance can most certainly be attributed to this – he built deep, long-term relationships, and was very highly regarded. He was powerfully moved by the human struggle, often helping others in his network to overcome their difficult challenges. As an artist and art lover, he acquired unique paintings that spoke to him directly and was an avid self-trained photographer and an opera lover. Mr. Yamakawa had a small terrier mix dog named Bo, whom he was utterly devoted to.

Surviving Hidemasa Yamakawa are his wife; his sisters Kimiko Nikai of Ishigaki, Okinawa and Kazumi Yamakawa of Tokyo; his brother, Hidekazu Yamakawa of Ishigaki, Okinawa; and nephews Akihide Nikai and Tomotaka Yamakawa, both of Tokyo.

A Memorial Service is scheduled for May 18, 2024, from 2:00pm to 5:00pm at the Midtown Funeral Home, 3918 West Irving Park Road, Chicago, IL 60618. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to Anti-Slavery International.

Arrangements by Midtown Funeral Home and Cremation Options, 773.654.3744, www.midtownfunerals.com