World's oldest person dies in Japan at age of 117

Nabi Tajima died of old age in a hospital Saturday evening in the town of Kikai in southern Japan, town official Susumu Yoshiyuki confirmed. Nabi Tajima, of Japan, passed away on Saturday after being hospitalized since January. (Photo: Kikai Town/Kyodo News via AP)

The century of Lincoln, Darwin and Van Gogh has quietly passed into history with the death of the world's oldest known person and last survivor of the 19th century. She raised seven sons and two daughters, and as of 2017 had more than 160 descendants, including great-great-great-grandchildren, according to the Gerontology Research Group. Her town of Kikai is a small island of about 7,000 people halfway between Okinawa and Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands. Tajima, who became the world's oldest known person with the death of Jamaican Violet Brown on Sept. 15, seems to have paperwork on her side. The U.S.-based Gerontology Research Group says that another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, is now the world's oldest person in its records. Yoshida 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 recognise Ms Tajima as the world's oldest person.
Nabi Tajima, the world's oldest person, dies at age 117 in southern Japan.