A Japanese woman, identified as the oldest person in the world by Guinness World Records, has died at the age of 116.
Tomiko Itooka died at a nursing home in the city of Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, according to officials.
He became the oldest person in the world after the death of Maria Branyas Morera from Spain in August 2024 at the age of 117.
“Mrs Itooka gave us courage and hope in her long life,” Ashiya mayor Ryosuke Takashima, 27, said in a statement.
“We thank him for it.”
Mrs Itooka was born in May 1908 – six years before the First World War and the same year as the introduction of the Ford Model T car in the US.
He was confirmed as the world’s oldest person in September 2024 and was given an official GWR certificate on Honoring the Elderly Day, Japan’s public holiday celebrated annually to honor the country’s elderly citizens.
Mrs Itooka, who was one of three siblings, lived through world wars, epidemics and technological breakthroughs.
As a student, he played volleyball and climbed the 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake twice.
In his old age, he loved bananas and Calpis, a milky soft drink popular in Japan, according to the mayor’s statement.
He married at the age of 20, and had two daughters and two sons, according to Guinness.
During the Second World War she managed the office of her husband’s textile factory. She lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979.
He is survived by one son and one daughter and five grandchildren. The funeral service was held with family and friends, according to officials.
As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 years old or older — 88% of whom were women.
Of this country’s 124 million people, nearly one-third are 65 or older.
Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was born 16 days after Itooka and is 116 years old, is now believed to be the oldest person in the world.
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