Shizue Yamaguchi, elected in 1946 as one of Japan's first female lawmakers, died of kidney failure at a Tokyo hospital April 3, it was announced Wednesday. She was 94.

Yamaguchi Shizue Garden, a Tokyo sports club where she had been a board member, said Yamaguchi had wanted her death to go unannounced until Oct. 31, her birthday.

She was returned to the Diet 13 times from Tokyo. She initially belonged to the forerunner of the Social Democratic Party and moved to the Liberal Democratic Party in 1967.

She was awarded the U.N. Peace Medal in 1980 and the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1987.