Osaka’s Harada Boxing Gym head Jitsuo Harada died of esophagus cancer on Dec. 21. It was learned on Dec. 22. He was 79.

Harada fought as an amateur boxer at bantamweight at Kindai University and served as a trainer for two years at Taiho Boxing Gym in Osaka.

He then trained his younger brother Tatsumi, an Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation super featherweight champion who was fighting under the name of Ryu Fukita at Osaka’s Shinshin Gym.

Harada launched his own gym in 1987 as Fukita retired a few years earlier and nurtured various not only west-Japan rookies’ champions but also all-Japan rookies’ champions. He had Katsumi Komiyama challenge South Korea’s Yuh Myung Woo for the latter’s World Boxing Council junior flyweight title in 1989. Komiyama was stopped by Yuh in the 10th round.

He also had his elder son Tsuyoshi, who was then OPBF super featherweight champion, take a crack at the WBC super bantamweight title held by Daniel Zaragoza of Mexico in 1996. But Tsuyoshi was stopped in the seventh round.

On Oct. 1 last year, Harada promoted a World Boxing Association light flyweight title match in Osaka, in which top-ranked Tetsuya Hisada of the Harada gym was decisioned by super champion Hiroto Kyoguchi of Watanabe Boxing Gym.

Harada became ill in August as he was found to be suffering from the cancer and was receiving radioactive and anticancer treatments at a hospital.