Sachiyo Nomura, a TV celebrity who was the wife of former baseball manager Katsuya Nomura, died Friday at a hospital in Tokyo, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows baseball team announced. She was 85.
Her talent agency said Saturday that the cause of death was ischemic heart failure.
Nomura, widely known by her nickname Sacchi, rose to great popularity on TV shows thanks for her blistering commentary.
In 1996 she made an unsuccessful run for the Lower House with Shinshinto (New Frontier Party).
In 2002, she was found guilty of tax evasion. The scandal prompted her husband to resign as manager of the Hyogo-based Hanshin Tigers baseball team in 2001.
"This is so sudden and I still can't accept it. I'm deep in sorrow but thank her for raising me," said Katsunori Nomura, one of her three sons and a coach with the Swallows, said in a statement.
"She was a great mother," he said.
