Probably the oldest person in the world Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka dies at the age of 116

She loved bananas, was an enthusiastic mountain hiker and impressed her fellow human beings with her sprightliness well into old age. Now Tomiko Itooka, the world's oldest person according to the Guinness Book of Records, has died at the age of 116.

Keystone-SDA

05.01.2025, 20:18

SDA

She died of old age on December 29, 2024 in the retirement home in her hometown of Ashiya in Hyogo Prefecture, as the city has now announced. When Itooka was once asked about the secret of her longevity, the Japanese woman said she ate bananas and drank calpis, a yogurt-flavored milk drink popular in Japan.

Itooka was born in Osaka on May 23, 1908, the eldest of three siblings. At the time, Japan was a rising imperial power that had just defeated Tsarist Russia in war. Itooka witnessed Japan's rise to an Asian colonial empire, its capitulation in 1945 and its re-emergence as a leading industrial nation and peaceful democracy.

Enthusiastic mountaineer until old age

Growing up in pre-war Japan, Itooka played volleyball at high school before marrying the owner of a textile company at the age of 20 and becoming the mother of two daughters and two sons. Her husband died in 1979 after 51 years of marriage. Itooka later moved to Ashiya, between Osaka and Kobe, where she continued to hike in the mountains well into her 80s. She climbed the 3067-metre-high Mount Ontake twice. Even at the age of 100, she is said to have climbed the stone steps of her local Shinto shrine - without a stick.

She only moved into her nursing home in Ashiya at the age of 110, as the Japanese newspaper "Asahi Shimbun" reported. Following the death of 117-year-old Spaniard Maria Branyas, Itooka was declared the oldest person in the world last year. When she was told this news at the retirement home, the Japanese woman is said to have replied simply in a firm voice: "Thank you".

"During her long life, she gave us a lot of courage and hope. We thank her once again and offer our sincere condolences to her family and loved ones," the Japanese TV station NHK quoted the mayor of Ashiya as saying after her death became known. Japan boasts one of the fastest ageing populations in the world. Of the country's 124 million inhabitants, almost a third are already 65 or older.

95,100 people aged 100 or older

Japan's traditional cuisine with lots of fish, rice and vegetables as well as advances in medicine and increased health awareness contribute to longevity. The average life expectancy in Japan in 2023 was 87.1 years for women and around 81.1 years for men.

As of September last year, the Far Eastern nation also had a record number of more than 95,100 people aged 100 or older - 88 percent of them women. This was the 54th consecutive year that Japan's number of centenarians has risen. According to the Gerontology Research Group, 116-year-old Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas is now the oldest person in the world.