World’s oldest person Tomiko Itooka dies at 116 in Japan

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A Japanese woman, recognised as the world’s oldest person by Guinness World Records, has died aged 116.

Tomiko Itooka died in a nursing home in the city of Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, according to officials.

She became the oldest person in the world after Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera passed away in August 2024 at age 117.

“Ms Itooka gave us courage and hope through her long life. We thank her for it,” Ashiya’s 27-year-old mayor Ryosuke Takashima said in a statement.

Ms Itooka was born in May 1908 – six years before the World War One and the same year that the Ford Model T car was launched in the US.