Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka has died at the age of 116, and for the last few months of her life, was recognised as the oldest person in the world.
The previous world's oldest person, a Spanish woman named Maria Branyas Morera, died in August at the age of 117 leading to Tomiko taking her crown for a brief period of her very long life.
Itooka had been born in May 1908 and died in a nursing home in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, meaning she lived through almost all of the 20th century and reached the first quarter of the 21st.
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In a statement released by the mayor of Ashiya, it said she had died last Sunday (29 December), saying: "Ms. Itooka gave us great courage and hope throughout her long life. I would like to express my gratitude once again.”
She had four children, two daughters and sons apiece, with her husband Kenji Itooka, who died in 1979 after 51 years of marriage.
Even in her old age, she was an enthusiastic hiker and had climbed Mount Ontake twice in her youth, while she is survived by one son and one daughter along with five grandchildren.
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As for the secret of her long life, she credited it to eating bananas and drinking the Japanese dairy drink Calpais, so if you want to live to be 116 years old, you might want to give it a try.
A Brazilian nun named Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was born 16 days after Itooka, is now thought to be the world's oldest person.
Whenever someone reaches this age there's an intense fascination surrounding their ability to live so long and the secrets behind it, for Itooka, it was bananas and a dairy drink, while her predecessor as the world's oldest person Morera credited it to eating a pot of yoghurt every day.
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Meanwhile, the world's oldest man is a 112-year-old Brazilian named Joao Marinho Neto, who has held the accolade since the death of Liverpudlian bloke John Tinniswood, who died in November last year at the age of 112.
Tinniswood put his longevity largely down to luck, saying that someone would 'either live long or you live short, and you can't do much about it'.
He did say that as well as 'pure luck' there was also 'moderation' behind his long life, which is something Morera also said was part of it.
On the other hand, the advice from former world's oldest person Emma Morano had been to eat three eggs a day, two of them raw.
Topics: World News
Joe Harker