Kenjiro Shinozuka, the first Japanese driver to win the Paris-Dakar Rally, died Monday of pancreatic cancer. He was 75.

Shinozuka died at a hospital in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture. He competed in Japanese rallies while working as an employee of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. from 1971.

Shinozuka made his Paris-Dakar Rally debut in 1986 with a Pajero and won the championship in 1997.

He also won the Ivory Coast Rally in 1991 and 1992.

==Kyodo

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