MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian nun becomes oldest person alive after death of Japanese woman

Tomiko Itooka died on Dec. 29 but her passing was not reported until this past

A Japanese woman considered to be the world's longest-lived person died on Dec. 29 at 116 years old at a nursing home in the city of Ashiya in the Hyogo Prefecture, it was reported Saturday. A Brazilian nun is now the oldest person alive.

Born on May 23, 1908, Tomiko Itooka became Japan's longest-living person in December 2023 following the death of 116-year-old Fusa Tatsumi in Kashiwara, in the Osaka Prefecture, neighboring Hyogo. Itooka was recognized as the world's longest-living person by the Guinness World Records in September last year 2024, following the death in Spain of 117-year-old US-born María Branyas Morera.

For the 54th consecutive year, Japan broke a new longevity record, with more than 95,000 centenarians, 90% of them women. The number of centenarians in the country is proliferating, with over 4,000 new ones every year.

Tomiko Itooka was a volleyball player in her younger days. She married at the age of 20 and had four children. During World War II, she managed her husband's textile factory in South Korea. At the age of 71, she was widowed. In her eighties, she climbed several mountains. It was not until she was 110 that she entered a nursing home.

After Tomiko Itooka's passing, the world's oldest person is now Brazil's Inah Canabarro Lucas, born on June 8, 1908, and aged also 116, according to the US Gerontology Research Group (GRG) and LongeviQuest. She had already been appointed the oldest nun back in March last year.

When she was hospitalized last year in pain, her nephew Cléber Canabarro, 84, told the Folha de São Paulo newspaper that “they did some tests [on her] and discovered that she has no illness.”