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World’s oldest person Tomiko Itooka dies aged 116
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,” Ashiya’s 27-year-old mayor Ryosuke Takashima said in a statement.
“We thank her for it.”
Ms Itooka was born in May 1908 – six years before World War One and the same year that the Ford Model T car was launched in the US.
She was verified as the world’s oldest person in September 2024 and was presented with the official GWR certificate on the Respect for the Aged Day, which is a Japanese public holiday celebrated annually to honour the country’s elderly citizens.
Ms Itooka, who was one of three siblings, lived through world wars and pandemics as well as technological breakthroughs.
As a student, she played volleyball and climbed the 3,067-metre (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake twice.
In her older age, she enjoyed bananas and Calpis, a milky soft drink popular in Japan, according to the mayor’s statement.
She married at 20, and had two daughters and two sons, according to Guinness.
During World War Two she managed the office of her husband’s textile factory. She lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979.
She is survived by one son and one daughter, and five grandchildren. A funeral service was held with family and friends, according to officials.
As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older – 88% of whom were women.
Of the country’s 124 million people, nearly a third are 65 or older.
Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was born 16 days after Itooka and is 116, is now believed to be the world’s oldest person.
[BBC]
The Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the proposal submitted by the Prime Minister to recruit 2,284 to the government service as per the recommendations of the ‘Committee appointed to review the recruitment process of the Government Service at its meeting held on 14.11.2025.
1. Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education 196
2. Ministry of Health and Mass Media 480
3. Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and
Local Governments 04
4. Ministry of Finance, Policy Planning and Economic
Development 19
5. Ministry of Transport, Highways and Urban Development 778
6. Ministry of Justice and National Integration 222
7. Ministry of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development 107
8. Ministry of Defense 73
9. Ministry of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources 20
10. Ministry of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs 21
11. Ministry of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development 36
12. Ministry of Buddha Shasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs
04
13. Ministry of Plantation and Community Infrastructure
Facilities 02
14. Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation 74
15. Western Provincial Council 230
16. Uva Provincial Council 08
17. North Western Provincial Council 08
18. Finance Commission 02
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