A famous Japanese wrestler-turned-parliamentarian Antonio Inoki died on Saturday at the age of 79, Japanese media reported on Saturday.
National broadcaster NHK claimed he died of a heart attack.
At 1.90 meters tall, Antonio Inoki was one of the pioneers of mixed martial arts in his country.
He became famous in Tokyo in 1976 after a fight against boxer Mohamed Ali and was a senator from 1989 to 1995. In 1998 he stopped fighting.
Re-elected as a parliamentarian in 2013, he has developed close personal ties with North Korea, where he has been dozens of times, notably to try to resolve the issue of Pyongyang’s kidnapping of Japanese citizens during the Cold War.
The wrestler, who said he wanted to “contribute to world peace through sport,” had organized martial arts and wrestling festivals in North Korea, an opportunity for him to meet the country’s leaders.
In 2013, upon his return from a trip to Pyongyang, he was suspended for a month for going to North Korea without parliamentary approval.