Hisashi Inoue KYODO PHOTO

Popular playwright Hisashi Inoue died of lung cancer April 9 at his home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, his family said. He was 75.

Inoue, a pacifist, was known for his activities promoting peace as one of the nine founding members of the Article 9 Association, a group devoted to preserving the Constitution's renunciation of war.

After starting his career as a writer while a student at Sophia University in Tokyo, Inoue won numerous literary prizes, including the Naoki Award for his novel Tegusari Shinju (Handcuffed Double Suicide) in 1972.