Japanese Tomiko Itoka, the world’s oldest person, has died at the age of 116

Tomiko Itoka, a Japanese woman born before the start of World War I and the sinking of the Titanic and who is believed to be the world’s oldest living person, has died in a nursing home in Ashiya, Japan. She was 116 years old.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Mayor of Ashiya said that Ms Ituka died last Sunday. He did not give a cause, but local media reports said she died peacefully due to complications related to old age.

City Mayor Ryosuke Takashima said: “I offer my sincere condolences.” “Miss. Itoka gave us great courage and hope throughout her long life. I would like to express my gratitude once again.”

It was Mrs. Ituka He was declared the oldest living person by the Guinness Book of World Records In September after Death of Maria Branyas Moreira Spain at the age of 117 years.

Mrs. Ituka was born Tomiko Yano On May 23, 1908, in Osaka, he was one of three children in a family that ran a clothing store. At the time, her country was a rising imperial power that had just defeated Tsarist Russia in war and was embarking on expansion into mainland Asia.

The year she was born, Japan signed an agreement with President Theodore Roosevelt’s Secretary of State to avoid conflict with the United States in exchange for Washington’s recognition of Japan’s annexation of the Korean Peninsula. During her lifetime, she witnessed her nation’s emergence as an Asian colonial empire, its fall in fiery defeat in 1945, and its rise again as an industrial giant and peaceful democracy.

She grew up in pre-war Japan, and played volleyball in high school before marrying textile company owner Kenji Itoka, with whom she had two daughters and two sons. During World War II, she remained in Japan to manage the business while her husband went to Korea, then a Japanese colony, to supervise a factory there.

“She single-handedly ran a Japanese office and raised her children during this period.” According to the Gerontology Research Groupwhich maintains a database of the world’s elderly.

In 1979, her husband died after 51 years of marriage. Ms. Itoka then moved to Ashiya, a city outside Osaka, where she remained an avid hiker into her 80s. At the age of 100, she was said to still be climbing the stone steps of the local Shinto shrine without a stick.

When local media once asked her about the secret to her longevity, she was said to credit it to eating bananas and drinking Kalbis, a Japanese dairy drink. Mrs. Ituka has one daughter, one son, and an unknown number of five grandchildren.

Miharu Nishiyama and Hisako Ueno Contributed to reports.