NY Times hires Wakabayashi to cover tech

Daisuke Wakabayashi, who has covered Apple for the past three years at The Wall Street Journal, has been hired by the New York Times to cover Google.

He will start in San Francisco on Aug. 29.

In a note to the staff, business editor Dean Murphy wrote, “He has distinguished himself there with aggressive coverage of Apple, including scoops on the company’s plans for an electric car and its smart watch.”

Before covering Apple, Wakabayashi worked for the Journal in its Tokyo bureau,  covering everything from the restructuring at Japan’s struggling electronics firms, to Nintendo’s attempts to stay relevant in a changing industry, to billionaire entrepreneur Masayoshi Son’s bid to crack the U.S. telecom market.

“Dai first caught our eye in a big way by showing his range and versatility when contributing to The Journal’s coverage of Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami,” said Murphy in his note. “That body of work won him the Society of Publishers in Asia’s (SOPA) journalist of the year award, as well as the group’s feature writing honors. Disasters aside, Dai says he found Japan to be a goldmine for feature writing. Some of his most memorable work included pieces on people who vacation with their (virtual) video-game girlfriends; ingenious smart phones that help philanderers keep their affairs secret; and classes where Japanese students learn English by reciting President Obama’s speeches out loud.”

Wakabayashi joined the Journal in 2008 in Tokyo after starting his career in 1999 at Reuters, where he worked in Tokyo, Boston and Seattle. In Seattle, he covered Microsoft.

He is a graduate of the College of Holy Cross.