World's Oldest Person, 114, Dies in Japan

[Socialist Christian]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3382827,00.html


TOKYO (AP) - A 114-year-old Japanese woman who just weeks ago assumed the title of the world's oldest person died Thursday, a Hiroshima official said.

London-based Guinness World Records recognized Mitoyo Kawate as the oldest person on Oct. 31, after Kamato Hongo, also from Japan, died at age 116. The oldest person is now Charlotte Benkner, of North Lima, Ohio, born Nov. 16, 1889, the records organization said.

Kawate, who was born May 15, 1889, died of pneumonia, said Hiroshima city spokesman Masatoshi Yamada.

Kawate, who had four children, was a farmer in Hiroshima until she was 100 years old, Yamada said.

She had a weakness for custard cakes and liked to sing, a caretaker said earlier this month. Kawate lived in a nursing home for the past 10 years and her condition had weakened over the past two years.

She is survived by a son and a daughter, but details about grandchildren or other relatives were not immediately available.

Life expectancy in Japan - 85.23 years for women and 78.32 for men in 2002 - is the longest in the world. The explanation, experts say, is partly the traditional Japanese diet, which is low in fatty foods.

Japan has lost three world-record holders for longevity in recent months. The world's former oldest man, 114-year-old Yukichi Chuganji, died Sept. 29.

According to Guinness, the world's oldest person with an authenticated birth record was Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at age 122.

The family of an Albanian woman, Hava Rexha, said to be 123 years old, also claimed the title of world's oldest person and tried to get Guinness to recognize her as such, but she died earlier this month.

Rexha was said to have been born Aug. 14, 1880, but did not receive a birth certificate until 1946. She lived south of Albania's capital of Tirana and died last weekend

[Cooley Hurd]

1. I wonder what she died from?

:silly:

[Maple]

2. This is becoming routine

you'll note.

Soon they won't even be noticed at all.

The human life span is changing again.

[Socialist Christian]

4. I would kill myself if i lived that long she couldnt have had fun <nt>

[Maple]

5. Why not?

People are living longer healthier lives than they ever have in history.

Please use some common sense.

[Socialist Christian]

8. By fun i mean decadent, physically harmful. Besides she wasnt exactly ....

on the up and up, but then again im so confident that every human has to die i cant wait to check out. Only those who fear the coming raptue would want to live

[Maple]

10. Get real

The 'extreme' elderly of the world are happy and healthy.

They are living short of NORMAL life spans actually.

You are just being weird.

[Aidoneus]

3. officially, perhaps, but she wasn't the world's oldest living person

that would be the Chechen Zabani Khachukayeva, who is at least 124yrs old, though she is probably not officially and formally counted in the Guinness World Records.

Remarkable either way.

[Maple]

6. Unofficially

there are people who have lived to 150....but we insist on birth certificates in countries and eras that didn't have them.

[NNN0LHI]

7. This is from November 13 and you posted the whole damn article too n/t

[TahitiNut]

9. Not LBN

[Malva Zebrina]

11. People in Georgia, the Hunza and others, claimed to live very long lives

but mostly these are incredible folk tales--there are questions about the recordings of birth in those times. There needs to be very didactic,clear evidence before these long lived lives are actually accepted as truth.