Shun Oide, a former House of Representatives member of the Social Democratic Party and former minister of posts and telecommunications, died Thursday at a Yokohama hospital. He was 79.
As an opposition member, Oide gained a reputation for holding up Diet deliberations with frequent questions on national security and defense issues. He was considered a "star interpellator" during sessions in the 1970s dealing with Okinawa's reversion to Japan and the Lockheed payoff scandal, which saw the conviction of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
After serving as secretary general of All Japan Posts and Telecommunications Workers' Union and as deputy chairman of the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan, he was first elected a Lower House member from a Kanagawa constituency in 1963. He was returned to the Lower House 11 times until he retired in 1996.
He served as minister of posts and telecommunications under Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in 1994 and received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun the following year.
His son Akira is a Lower House member of the SDP.