Internationally renowned Japanese fashion designer Yamamoto Kansai has died of leukemia. He was 76.

Yamamoto's office says he passed away last Tuesday at a Tokyo hospital where he was being treated for the disease since early this year.

Kansai Electric Power Company has filed a lawsuit for 18 million dollars in damages against five former executives over a bribery scandal.

The utility filed the suit against former chairman Yagi Makoto, former president Iwane Shigeki and three others at the Osaka District Court on Tuesday.