A Japanese woman, Tomiko Itooka, globally recognised as world’s oldest person, has died, aged 116.
The mayor of Ashiya, the city where she lived, Ryosuke Takashima who announced her death in a statement today said Itooka, who had four children and five grandchildren died on December 29 at a nursing home where she resided since 2019.
The deceased was born on May 23, 1908, in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya, four months before the Ford Model T was launched in the United States.
She was recognised as the oldest person in the world after the August 2024 death of Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera at age 117.
The statement added that Itooka, who was one of three siblings, lived through world wars and pandemics as well as technological breakthroughs.
