TOKYO: The first woman to reach the top of Mount Everest, Junko Tabei of Japan, has died at age 77, local media reported on Saturday.
Tabei died of peritoneal cancer on Thursday at a hospital in Saitama, north of Tokyo, the broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News said, quoting her family.
The Fukushima native became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1975, accomplishing the feat via the southeast ridge route.
In 1992, she became the first woman to complete the "Seven Summits", ascending the highest point on each of the seven continents. Those peaks include Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Denali in Alaska and the Vinson Massif in Antarctica.
Before attaining fame, Tabei, a graduate of Showa Women's University, trained as a member of a mountaineers' club that was established to promote climbing abroad by women.
Her quest to scale mountains continued even after she turned 70, as she travelled abroad five or six times a year, scaling peaks in more than 60 countries and regions.
In 1995 she earned a prize from the Japanese prime minister and in 2008 was awarded the 2008 Mountain Hero Award by the Mountain Institute in Washington, according to her website.
To help lift the spirits of survivors of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan, Tabei promoted climbing mountains in Fukushima Prefecture, one of the hardest hit areas.
In an interview with AFP in 2003, she said: "I don't have the desire to climb Everest again any more. If I had enough time and money to do so, I would rather climb other mountains that I have not attempted before."
Her last challenge took place in July when she climbed Mount Fuji in central Japan with high school students, according to NHK.