Nobel-winning novelist dies

TOKYO

Nobel-winning Japanese novelist Kenzaburo Oe, a leading liberal voice who defended the disenfranchised and challenged the conformity of modern society, has died aged 88.

“He died of old age in the early hours of March 3,” publisher Kodansha said in a statement yesterday, adding that a family funeral has already been held.

Known for his pacifist and anti-nuclear views, Oe saw himself as part of a generation of writers “deeply wounded” by World War II, “yet full of hope for a rebirth.”

His esoteric stories, influenced by French and American literary culture, confronted issues from perceptions of disability to the disconnect between village traditions and big-city life.

“With poetic force Oe creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today,” the Nobel panel said when it awarded him the 1994 literature prize.