A Japanese woman who was the world’s oldest living person has died at the age of 116.
Tomiko Itooka, who was awarded the Guinness World Record status last year, died on 29 December at a care home in Ashiya, Hyogo prefecture in central Japan.
Itooka, who had previously spoken of her love of bananas and a Japanese yoghurt-flavoured drink called Calpis, was born on 23 May 1908, six years before the outbreak of the first world war, and in the same year as the Ford Model T was launched.
Born in Osaka, she had been a volleyball player in secondary school, and was a keen mountain climber.
Yoshitsugu Nagata, an official in charge of policies for older people, said Itooka had twice climbed the 3,067-metre (10,062ft) Mount Ontake.
She became the planet’s oldest person last year after the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas, according to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).
When she was told last year she was at the top of the world supercentenarian rankings, she simply replied: “Thank you.”
Itooka received flowers, a cake and a card from the mayor when she celebrated her birthday in 2024.
She married at 20 and managed the office of her husband’s textile factory during the second world war. Itooka lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979.
She is survived by a son, a daughter and five grandchildren. A funeral service was held with family and friends, according to Nagata.
The world’s oldest person is now 116-year-old Inah Canabarro Lucas, a Brazilian nun who was born 16 days after Itooka, according to the GRG.
