World’s oldest person dies at 116 in Japan

The world’s oldest person, Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, has died at the age of 116, the city of Ashiya, where she lived, announced on Saturday.

Itooka, who had four children and five grandchildren, died on December 29 at a nursing home where she had resided since 2019, the southern city’s mayor said in a statement.

She was born on May 23, 1908, in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya – four months before the Ford Model T automobile was launched in the United States.

Itooka was recognised as the oldest person in the world after the August 2024 death of Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera at age 117.

“Itooka gave us courage and hope through her long life,” Ashiya’s 27-year-old Mayor Ryosuke Takashima said.