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Former Japan PM Takeshita Dies
Former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita died Monday after an extended illness.
Takeshita, 76, died of respiratory failure at a Tokyo hospital early Monday, said Shigeo Yoshimura of the Takeshita family's sake brewery in western Japan.
Takeshita, who served as premier from 1987 to 1989, announced his retirement from politics last month after more than a year in the hospital. He was originally hospitalized in April 1999, complaining of lower back pain.
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