Tota Kaneko, who led Japan's postwar haiku poetry reform movement with his avant-garde style, died Tuesday night due to respiratory failure at a hospital in Saitama Prefecture, his family said. He was 98.

A graduate of the University of Tokyo, Kaneko studied under poet Shuson Kato (1905-1993) and continued composing haiku while working at the Bank of Japan. As a war veteran, he actively advocated peace in later life, talking about his tragic wartime experiences.

Kaneko gained the attention of his literary peers at age 18 when he wrote his first haiku, having become fascinated with the poetic form.

But a turning point in his life came when he served in World War II after joining the BOJ. He went to Truk Islands in the South Pacific as a navy accounting officer and saw many other soldiers die due to serious food shortage as they were cut off from supplies.

Kaneko returned to Japan, hoping to "create a peaceful world for the sake of the comrades who died." He started pursuing avant-garde haiku without the traditional seasonal references and also incorporated social issues and ideologies into his poems.

He founded his own haiku magazine Kaitei in 1962 and was admired as the "flag-bearer of avant-garde haiku" during the 1960s until forces preferring traditional haiku poetry became more popular.

In his later years, Kaneko campaigned for peace and warned that Japanese society is tilting toward the right. Banners bearing his calligraphy message "We will not tolerate (Prime Minister Shinzo) Abe's policies" have been used by protestors in recent years who feel the Abe government is backing away from Japan's postwar pacifism.