World’s Oldest Person, Tomiko Itooka, Passes Away at 116 – A Remarkable Journey Ends

Born before World War I and the Titanic disaster, Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka was thought to be the world’s oldest person. She passed away in a nursing home in Ashiya, Japan. Her age was 116. Ms. Itooka died last Sunday, according to a statement issued by the Ashiya mayor on Saturday. Although he did not specify the cause, local news outlets reported that she passed away quietly from age-related issues. “I extend my sincerest sympathies,” Ryosuke Takashima, the mayor, said. Throughout her lengthy life, Ms. Itooka offered us a lot of hope and courage. I want to thank you one more for everything.

In September, Guinness World Records announced that Ms. Itooka was the oldest person still alive. Following the death of Maria Branyas Morera of Spain at the age of 117 in September, Ms. Itooka was proclaimed the oldest living person by Guinness World Records. Born Tomiko Yano on May 23, 1908, in Osaka, Ms. Itooka was the third child in a family that had a clothes store. Her nation was a burgeoning imperial force at the time, having recently defeated Czarist Russia in a war and was attempting to expand into continental Asia. In her birth year, Japan and the secretary of state of President Theodore Roosevelt signed a deal that prevented war with the United States in return for Washington acknowledging Japan’s annexation of the Korean Peninsula. Over her lifetime, she witnessed the rise of her country.

She witnessed her country’s emergence as an Asian colonial empire, its devastating defeat in 1945, and its subsequent ascent as a peaceful democracy and industrial powerhouse. She played volleyball in high school while growing up in pre-war Japan. She later married Kenji Itooka, who owned a textile company, and they had two daughters and two sons. She remained in Japan to manage the company throughout World War II, while her husband traveled to Korea, which was then a Japanese colony, to supervise a factory there.

The Gerontology Research Group, which maintains a database of the oldest persons in the world, claims that throughout this time, “she raised her children and managed a Japanese office alone.” After 51 years of marriage, her spouse passed away in 1979. After that, Ms. Itooka relocated to Ashiya, a city west of Osaka, where she continued to trek passionately well into her 80s. She was reportedly still using a cane to climb the stone steps of her neighborhood Shinto shrine at the age of 100. When questioned by local news outlets about the secret to her longevity, she allegedly gave the consumption of Calpis, a Japanese dairy drink, and bananas credit. One daughter, one son, and an unspecified number of Ms. Itooka’s five grandchildren survive her.