Japan's Nobel-winning author Kenzaburo Oe dies at 88

Japan's Nobel-winning novelist Kenzaburo Oe has died, his publisher Kodansha said on Monday. He was 88.

"He died of old age in the early hours of March 3," the publisher said in a statement, adding that a family funeral had already been held.

Born on Jan. 31, 1935 in Ehime province, Oe was a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature.

In 1994, he became the second Japanese to win the Nobel Prize in Literature after Yasunari Kawabata.

The Nobel Committee had described him as someone "who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."

A peace activist, the deceased writer also spearheaded a campaign calling for elimination of nuclear plants in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Some of his notable works include A personal matter, and The silent cry.