The oldest person in the world died at the age of 116

A Japanese woman, recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest person in the world, has died at the age of 116.

Tomiko Itooka died at a nursing home in Osiya, Hyogo Prefecture, officials said.

She became the oldest person in the world after Spain’s Maria Brañas Marrero died in August 2024 at the age of 117.

“Mrs. Itooka gave us courage and hope with her long life,” Ashiya Mayor Ryosuke Takashima, 27, said in a statement.

– We thank her for that.

Ms Ituka was born in May 1908 – six years before World War I and the same year the Ford Model T car was launched in the US.

In September 2024, she was recognized as the world’s oldest person and received an official GWR certificate on Respect for the Elderly Day, a Japanese public holiday celebrated annually to honor the country’s elderly citizens.

Ms Ituka, who was one of three siblings, has survived world wars and pandemics as well as technological breakthroughs.

As a student, she played volleyball and climbed the 3,067-meter (10,062 ft) Mount Ontake twice.

When she was older, she loved bananas and calpis, a popular soft drink made with milk in Japan, according to the mayor’s statement.

She married at age 20 and had two daughters and two sons, according to Guinness.

During World War II, she managed the office of her husband’s textile factory. She lived alone in Nara after her husband’s death in 1979.

She is survived by a son and a daughter, five grandchildren. According to officials, the funeral took place in the circle of family and friends.

As of September, there were more than 95,000 people aged 100 and over in Japan, 88% of whom were women.

Of the country’s 124 million inhabitants, almost a third are people aged 65 and older.

Brazilian nun Ina Canabara Lucas, who was born 16 days after Ituca and is 116 years old, is now believed to be the oldest person in the world.