These are lists of Japanese supercentenarians (people from Japan who have attained the age of at least 110 years). The Gerontology Research Group (GRG), an organization that tracks supercentenarians and validates their ages, has verified age claims for over 300 such old people from Japan. The oldest Japanese person on record was Misao Okawa who died on 1 April 2015 at the age of 117 years, 27 days. The oldest verified man was Jiroemon Kimura who died on 12 June 2013 at the age of 116 years, 54 days. As of 13 March 2017, there are 21 verified living supercentenarians in Japan, the oldest of whom is Nabi Tajima, born 4 August 1900, aged 7009367977600000000♠116 years, 221 days.
Contents
100 oldest Japanese people ever
Deceased Living
†^ denotes age at death, or, if living, age as of 13 March 2017
Gengan Tonaki
Gengan Tonaki (渡名喜元完, Tonaki Gengan, 30 October 1884 – 24 January 1997) was Japan's oldest living man from 28 September 1991 until his death at age 112 years, 86 days on 24 January 1997. Tonaki lived in Okinawa Prefecture. At the time of his death, Tonaki was the third oldest living man, behind American men Christian Mortensen and Johnson Parks.
Denzo Ishizaki
Denzo Ishizaki (石崎 伝蔵, Ishizaki Denzō, 20 October 1886 – 29 April 1999) was for a short time Japan's oldest person and the world's oldest man, from February to April 1999. A former elementary school teacher and town assembly member, Ishizaki lived in Kansago, Ibaraki Prefecture, where he died of multiple organ failure on 29 April 1999 at the age of 112 years, 191 days.
Tase Matsunaga
Tase Matsunaga (松永 タセ, Matsunaga Tase, 11 May 1884 – 18 November 1998) was a Japanese supercentenarian. Matsunaga was born in Kiyosato in the Niigata prefecture though soon moved to Tokyo. She moved from Tokyo, where she lived with her daughter, to Mutsumien in 1983. A farmer for most of her life, she was still gardening when she was 112, but she was mostly bedridden after that. On 31 July 1998, she became the oldest recognized living person in Japan. Later that same year she died, aged 114 years, 191 days, of heart failure. Matsunaga was the second oldest living person in the world behind Sarah Knauss.
Mitoyo Kawate
Mitoyo Kawate (川手 ミトヨ, Kawate Mitoyo, May 15, 1889 – November 13, 2003) was a Japanese supercentenarian. She became the world's oldest living woman after the death of Mae Harrington on December 29, 2002, and the oldest recognized living person after the death of Japanese man Yukichi Chuganji on September 28, 2003, until November 13, 2003. (On October 31, 2003, after Kamato Hongo's death, Kawate was thought to be the oldest living person in the world. In fact, Kawate became oldest living person in the world on September 28, 2003, because Kamato Hongo's record was revoked in 2012.)
A resident of Hiroshima, she worked on a farm until injuring her hands at the age of 99. In 1945, two days after the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima, she entered Hiroshima city in order to look for acquaintances. She was taken to a hospital shortly before her death from pneumonia. Her death left Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan of Puerto Rico the oldest documented person in the world, though this was not recognized by Guinness World Records until 2004 (Charlotte Benkner of the U.S. had been given the title in the interim).
Ura Koyama
Ura Koyama (小山 ウラ, Koyama Ura, 30 August 1890 – 5 April 2005) of Iizuka became the oldest person in Japan upon the death of Mitoyo Kawate in November 2003. On 5 April 2005, she died of pneumonia at a hospital in Iizuka. Koyama was the fourth oldest person in the world behind María Capovilla, Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper and Elizabeth Bolden, aged 114 years, 218 days. However, at the time of her death, she was thought to be the second oldest person in the world due to she died before the discovery of María Capovilla and Elizabeth Bolden. Following Koyama's death, Yone Minagawa became Japan's oldest living person.
Koto Okubo
Koto Okubo (大久保 琴, Ōkubo Koto, 24 December 1897 – 12 January 2013) was a Japanese supercentenarian who, at the time of her death aged 115 years, 19 days was recognized as the oldest woman in the world and the second oldest living person behind Jiroemon Kimura.
Okubo became the oldest woman from Japan and Asia after the death of Chiyono Hasegawa on 2 December 2011. Okubo had been living in a nursing home in Kawasaki, Kanagawa with her son and died of pneumonia. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare did not announce her name officially; only her residence and age were initially released.
The name of Okubo was finally reported by the Japanese press on 14 September 2012, and on the same day, Okubo was verified and added to the GRG list and Guinness World Records. On 17 December 2012, Dina Manfredini died, Okubo became the oldest recognized living woman. After Okubo's death, Misao Okawa became the oldest recognized living woman.