Screenwriter Taichi Yamada died of old age at a facility in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Wednesday. He was 89.
A native of Tokyo, Yamada is known for popular Japanese television dramas such as "Fuzoroi no Ringotachi" and "Otokotachi no Tabiji."
After graduating from Waseda University, Yamada joined movie giant Shochiku in 1958 and served as assistant film director. He worked under noted director Keisuke Kinoshita.
Yamada left the company in 1965 to become a freelance screenwriter and worked on many popular TV dramas.
"Otokotachi no Tabiji," broadcast from 1976, starred Koji Tsuruta, who played a former member of the imperial Japanese military's kamikaze special attack corps.
"Fuzoroi no Ringotachi," a TV series about college students broadcast from 1983, was a big hit particularly among young people.
Other major works of Yamada's include "Kishibe no Album," aired in 1977, which depicted the collapse and rebirth of a family, and "Toki wa Tachidomaranai," broadcast in 2014, which focused on families affected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
As well as writing scripts for movies and plays, Yamada was successful as a novelist.
He won many prizes including the Yamamoto Shugoro award, given in 1988 for his novel "Ijintachi tono Natsu."
"I can only express my gratitude," actor Kiichi Nakai, who appeared in "Fuzoroi no Ringotachi," said in a blog post following news of Yamada's death.