Japanese supercentenarians are citizens, residents or emigrants from
Japan who have attained or surpassed the age of 110 years. , the
Gerontology Research Group
The Gerontology Research Group (GRG) based in Los Angeles, California, USA, is a global social science organization of researchers in various fields of gerontology, primarily concerned with verifying and recording supercentenarians status (peop ...
(GRG) had validated the longevity claims of 263 Japanese
supercentenarians, most of whom are women.
[ As of , it lists the oldest living Japanese person as Fusa Tatsumi (born in ]Ōsaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 ...
on 25 April 1907), aged . The oldest verified Japanese and Asian person ever is Kane Tanaka (1903–2022), who lived to the age of 119 years and 107 days, making her the second oldest validated person ever as well. Japan was also home to the world's oldest man ever, Jiroemon Kimura
was a Japanese supercentenarian who lived for 116 years and 54 days. He became the verified oldest man in history on 28 December 2012, when he surpassed the age of Christian Mortensen (1882–1998), as well as, so far, the only man who has li ...
(1897–2013), who lived to the age of 116 years and 54 days.
100 oldest known Japanese
Biographies
Denzo Ishizaki
was an elementary school teacher and town assembly member in his hometown Kansago, Ibaraki Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Tochigi Prefecture ...
. At the time of his death, Ishizaki had been the world's oldest living man for almost 18 weeks, as well as the 9th oldest living person in the world. He died of multiple organ failure
Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) is altered organ function in an acutely ill patient requiring medical intervention to achieve homeostasis.
Although Irwin and Rippe cautioned in 2005 that the use of "multiple organ failure" or "multisy ...
on 29 April 1999 at age 112 years and 191 days, and was the oldest Japanese man ever (until October 2001, when his record was broken by Yukichi Chuganji). However, Ishizaki claimed to be two years older, asserting that his birth register had been "delayed by two years".
Yukichi Chuganji
Yukichi Chuganji (中願寺 雄吉; ''Chūganji Yūkichi'', 23 March 1889 – 28 September 2003) was a Japanese silkworm breeder, instructor in the agricultural specialty, bank employee and community welfare officer who lived for 114 years and 189 days. At the time of his death, he was the oldest Japanese man ever and the world's oldest living person.
Chuganji didn’t like to eat vegetables but liked beef, pork and chicken. He also ate toffee, drank milk, the occasional apple juice and only drank alcohol in moderation, which he believed were the secrets to a long life. During the last years of his life, he had failing eye sight and was bedridden. He died of natural causes on the evening of 28 September 2003, after being served a glass of apple juice by his 74-year-old daughter who was his only living child. Besides 5 children, Chuganji also had 7 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Nabi Tajima
succeeded Violet Brown
Violet Brown ( Mosse; 10 March 1900 – 15 September 2017) was a Jamaican supercentenarian who was the oldest verified living person in the world for five months, following the death of Emma Morano on 15 April 2017 until her own death at the age ...
as the world's oldest person after Brown's death on 16 September 2017. She was the last person verified as having been born in the 19th century.[Daniel Politi]
The Last Known Person Born in the 19th Century Dies in Japan at 117
''Slate Magazine
''Slate'' is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former '' New Republic'' editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 2 ...
'', 22 April 2018.
Tajima was born and died on the small island of Kikaijima
is one of the Satsunan Islands, classed with the Amami archipelago between Kyūshū and Okinawa.
The island, in area, has a population of approximately 7,657 persons. Administratively the island forms the town of Kikai, Kagoshima Prefecture ...
, about halfway between Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
and the main Japanese islands. Her husband, Tominishi Tajima (田島 富二子), died at the age of 93 in 1991. She had nine children, seven sons and two daughters, and in September 2017 she was reported to have had around 160 descendants, including great-great-great-grandchildren.[117歳 世界一へ県民栄誉検討 田島ナビさんを知事訪問 鹿児島県喜界町]
She stated that her longevity was due to sleeping soundly and eating delicious food.[ Guinness World Records was planning to certify Tajima as the world's oldest person, but she died at a nursing home in Kikai shortly before they could do so.]
She died at age 117 years and 260 days on 21 April 2018, and was the oldest Japanese person ever until Kane Tanaka surpassed her age on 19 September 2020.
Masazō Nonaka
had been, at the time of his death, Japan's oldest living man since October 2016, and the world's oldest living man for one year, since January 2018. Nonaka was also the oldest person ever born in Hokkaidō.
He had two brothers and three sisters; Nonaka married Hatsuno Nonaka in 1931. They had five children, of whom three were living as of his death.[Japan's Masazo Nonaka, declared world's oldest living man in 2018, dies aged 113 Nonaka enjoyed relaxing in hot springs, reading newspapers, eating cake and watching sumo on television, his family said](_blank)
SCMP
The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...
, 20 January 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2019. He ran the family '' onsen'', which opened in 1905. He spent most of his later years in a wheelchair, crediting his longevity to eating sweets and relaxing in the hot springs. Nonaka died at home of natural causes at 1:30 a.m. on 20 January 2019, aged 113 years and 179 days.
See also
* Shigechiyo Izumi
was a Japanese centenarian who was titled the oldest living person after the death of Niwa Kawamoto on 16 November 1976, also from Japan. His case was initially verified by ''Guinness World Records'', who titled him the oldest man ever, but Gu ...
, wrongly assumed to have been the world's oldest man ever
References
{{Longevity
Supercentenarians
A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian) is a person who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of major age-related diseases u ...
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...