TOKYO – Junko Tabei, who in 1975 became the first woman to successfully scale Mount Everest, has died at age 77, her family says.
Tabei conquered Everest in May 1975, aged 35, before climbing all of the world’s seven highest peaks including Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Denali in Alaska by 1992.
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Her last ascent, of Mount Fuji, was in July with a group of high school students affected by the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
Tabei was originally from Fukushima prefecture that was badly affected by the disaster.
She was diagnosed with cancer of the abdomen four years ago, and died in hospital in the city of Saitama, the BBC reported.
In 2012, she told The Japan Times she was proud of her accomplishment, which was widely seen as a push forward for the women’s movement in Japan.
“Back in 1970s Japan, it was still widely considered that men were the ones to work outside and women would stay at home.
“Even women who had jobs – they were asked just to serve tea. So it was unthinkable for them to be promoted in their workplaces.”
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“There was never a question in my mind that I wanted to climb that mountain, no matter what other people said,” she said.
