Tomiko Itooka: World’s oldest person dies aged 116

“We thank her for it.”

Ms Itooka was born in May 1908 – six years before the First World War and the same year that the Ford Model T car was launched in the US.

She was verified as the world’s oldest person in September 2024 and was presented with the official GWR certificate on the Respect for the Aged Day, which is a Japanese public holiday celebrated annually to honour the country’s elderly citizens.

Ms Itooka, who was one of three siblings, lived through world wars and pandemics as well as technological breakthroughs.

As a student, she played volleyball and climbed the 3,067-metre (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake twice.

In her older age, she enjoyed bananas and Calpis, a milky soft drink popular in Japan, according to the mayor’s statement.

She married at 20, and had two daughters and two sons, according to Guinness.

During World War Two she managed the office of her husband’s textile factory. She lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979.

She is survived by one son and one daughter, and five grandchildren. A funeral service was held with family and friends, according to officials.

As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older – 88% of whom were women.

Of the country’s 124 million people, nearly a third are 65 or older.

Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was born 16 days after Itooka and is 116, is now believed to be the world’s oldest person.