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28 March 2024

World's oldest dead: Man, 116, woman, 127

Published
By AFP

The world's oldest person and the oldest man ever to have lived has died of natural causes aged 116 years, media reported Wednesday.

Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who was born in 1897, died in hospital early Wednesday morning, Kyodo News cited the local government as saying.

Kimura, from Kyotango in Kyoto Prefecture, was recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living person in December 2012 when a woman from the United States died at the age of 115.

On the 28th day of that month he broke another record, when he became the oldest man ever verified to have lived when he reached the age of 115 years and 253 days.

However, he was well off the all-time record set by French woman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, making her the longest living person in history.

Kimura, who was born the same year as American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, celebrated his 116th birthday in April, receiving a pre-recorded video greeting from Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The centenarian had seven children, 14 grandchildren, 25 great-grand children and 14 great-great grandchildren, and worked at a post office for about 40 years. After retiring he took up farming which he continued to do until the age of 90.

Encouraged by Kimura and 94 other people in Kyotango's 60,000-strong population who will this year be 100 years old or more, the city has launched a research project to examine their diets and find the secrets of their longevity.

 

 

World's 'oldest woman' dies in China

A woman who Chinese officials said was 127 years old -- although international authorities never recognised the claim -- has died, relatives said on Tuesday.

Official documents said that Luo Meizhen was born in 1885, which would make her the oldest person ever to have lived, but she died at the weekend after months of illness, her son Huang Youhe told AFP.

"She was 127 when she died, it wasn't unexpected," her grandson Huang Heyuan said.

Luo's declared birth date means she may have been the oldest person in the world when she died, ahead of Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who records say is 116.

But Luo's claim met with little recognition internationally because China did not have a reliable birth certification system until decades after she was born.

Scepticism was further fuelled by reports of the youthfulness of her sons, one of whom she was said to have given birth to at the age of 61.

According to Guinness World Records, the oldest person ever to have lived was Jeanne Calment of France, who was 122 years and 164 days when she died in 1997.

Luo's 1885 birth date was quoted on her official residency permit and identity card, both issued in recent decades, and was confirmed by a state-sponsored research institute in 2010.

China's official Xinhua news agency ran reports of her 127th birthday celebrations on its website in October, describing her as China's oldest person.

"She was a kind person but at times had a very bad temper... she had a strong character," Huang Heyuan said.

Luo, who worked as a farmer all her life, and gave birth to five children, is survived by several great-great grandchildren in the remote village of Longhong, in China's southern province of Guangxi.

The village is part of Bama county, a poor region that officials say is home to more than 80 centenarians.

Her relatives gathered in her simply furnished brick house Tuesday to light red incense sticks in remembrance.

Relatives said they had stored her body on a mountain close to their home and were waiting for an auspicious date later this month to bury her.