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The oldest person in the world, Japanese Tomiko Itoka, 116 years old, has died, according to the city of Ashiya (southern Japan), where she lived.
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The mayor of Ashiya said in a statement that Ituka had four children and five grandchildren, and she died on December 29 in the nursing home where she had lived since 2019.
Itoka was born on May 23, 1908 in Osaka, near Ashiya, and was ranked as the oldest person in the world after the death of the Spaniard Maria Branyas Moreira in August 2024 at the age of 117 years.
“Mrs. Itoka gave us courage and hope throughout her long life,” said Mayor Ashiya Ryosuke Takashima.
“We thank her for that,” said the 27-year-old officer.
Ituka comes from a family of three children, was a volleyball player in his youth, and has seen wars, epidemics and technological revolutions.
A press release issued by the city council said that she loves bananas and the popular drink kalebis in Japan in her old age, which is made through a lactic fermentation process.
Japan is currently facing a demographic crisis with a growing elderly population and shrinking labor force, leading to increased medical and social costs.
In September, Japan announced that it has more than 95,000 centenarians, 88 percent of whom are women.
There are 124 million people in the country, and a third of them are 65 years or older.
After the death of Tomiko Ituka, the oldest person in the world is now the Brazilian Ina Canabaru Lucas, who was born on June 8, 1908 and is 116 years old, according to the American Aging Research Group and LongevQuest.
This nun was born in the city of Saint Francis of Assisi in the south of the country, and she lives at the headquarters of the Brazilian Sisters of Saint Theresia in Porto Alegre.
In 2018, when she was about 110 years old, she received an apostolic blessing from Pope Francis, according to the LongQuest website.