Shōichi Watanabe

was a Japanese-born English scholar. Watanabe was one of Japan’s more important cultural critics. 
Watanabe was born in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture. He studied at Sophia University and completed his doctorate at University of Münster in 1958. 
Watanabe became successively lecturer at Tsuruoka, assistant professor and full professor, until his retirement. He served as emeritus professor at the same university until his death. He was chairman of the Japan Bibliophile Society. His personal collection of books on English philology (see Bibliography) was perhaps his most important contribution to the field of English philology in Japan, containing many rare items.
Watanabe died on 17 April 2017 in Tokyo from heart failure, aged 86.