(Kyodo) _ Frank Gibney, one of America's leading experts on Japan and Asia-Pacific affairs who founded and edited the Japanese-language Encyclopedia Britannica, died of heart failure on April 9 at his home in Santa Barbara, California, his family said. He was 81. President of the Pacific Basin Institute and a professor of politics at Pomona College, Gibney spent most of his life attempting to bridge the gap between Americans and the countries and cultures of East Asia. Gibney's books and films on Japan, China and other Pacific Basin countries have enjoyed broad readership, from his first book "Five Gentlemen of...