A Japanese woman who holds the title of the world’s oldest person has died at the age of 116 – at the national level

Tomiko Itoka, the Japanese woman who became the world’s oldest person, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, has died, an official in the city of Ashiya announced on Saturday. She was 116 years old.

Yoshitsugu Nagata, an official in charge of elderly policy, said Itoka died on December 29 at a nursing home in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture in central Japan.

Itoka, who loved bananas and a yogurt-flavored Japanese drink called kalpis, was born on May 23, 1908. She became the oldest living person last year after Maria Branyas died at age 117, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

When told she was at the top of the world’s rankings of super-centenarians, she simply replied: “Thank you.”

When Ituka celebrated her birthday last year, she received flowers, a cake and a card from the city’s mayor.

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The oldest person in the world dies at the age of 117

Itoka, who was born in Osaka, was a high school volleyball player who had long had a reputation for his lively spirit, Nagata said. She has climbed the 3,067 m (10,062 ft) Mount Ontake twice.

She married when she was twenty years old and gave birth to two daughters and two sons, according to Guinness.

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Itoka ran her husband’s textile factory office during World War II. She lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979.

She leaves behind one son, one daughter and five grandchildren. A funeral service was held with family and friends, according to Nagata.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, the world’s oldest person is now 116-year-old Brazilian nun Ina Canabarro Lucas, who was born 16 days after Ituka.

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