World's oldest person dies in Japan at age of 117
The world's oldest person, a 117-year-old Japanese woman, has died.
Nabi Tajima died of old age in a hospital Saturday evening in the town of
Kikai in southern Japan, town official Susumu Yoshiyuki confirmed. She had been
hospitalized since January.
Tajima, born on Aug. 4, 1900, was the last known person born in the 19th
century. She reportedly had more than 160 descendants, including
great-great-great grandchildren. Her town of Kikai is in Kagoshima prefecture on
Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands.
She became the world's oldest person seven months ago after the death in
September of Violet Brown in Jamaica, also at the age of 117. Video shown on
Japanese television showed Tajima moving her hands to the beat of music played
on traditional Japanese instruments at a ceremony to mark the achievement.
The U.S.-based Gerontology Research Group says that another Japanese woman,
Chiyo Miyako, is now the world's oldest person in its records. Miyako lives
south of Tokyo in Kanagawa prefecture, and is due to turn 117 in 10 days.
Guinness World Records certified 112-year-old Masazo Nonaka of northern Japan
as the world's oldest man earlier this month, and was planning to recognize
Tajima as the world's oldest person.
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