The world’s oldest person and the oldest man ever to have lived has died of natural causes aged 116, officials in Japan said yesterday.
Jiroemon Kimura, who was born in 1897, died in hospital early yesterday morning “from old age,” an official in Kyoto’s Kyotango City said in a statement.
Kimura, who was from Kyotango, was hospitalized early last month suffering from pneumonia. A few days ago doctors said that his condition was worsening.
Kimura was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living person in December last year, after a woman from the US died at the age of 115.
That month he also broke another record when he was verified as the oldest man ever to have lived, after reaching the age of 115 years, 253 days.
However, he was well off the all-time record set by French woman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, making her the longest living person in history.
The centenarian had seven children, 14 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and 15 great-great-grandchildren, and worked at a post office for about 40 years. After retiring he took up farming.
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