Kazuo Majima, an Upper House lawmaker from the Liberal Democratic Party, died of a heart attack Thursday morning at a hospital in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, his family said. He was 69.
Majima, a former bureaucrat and native of Niigata, was first elected to the Upper House in 1990 in a by-election.
After graduating from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, he joined the former Construction Ministry in 1960. He served as a senior ministry official before entering politics.
He was defeated in an Upper House election in 1998, but regained a seat in the chamber in the latest poll, held in July.
Majima headed the Upper House committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries and worked as a parliamentary vice minister at the former Ministry of International Trade and Industry.