World Oldest Person, Nabi Tajima Dies, Aged 117

Nabi Tajima, born Aug. 4, 1900, in Araki, Japan, and recognized as the world’s oldest person, has passed on that mantle. She died Saturday, April 21, 2018 having been hospitalized since January, according to reports, and was the last known person born in the 19th century (which ended on Jan. 1, 1901).

Reports also have it that she was living in the town of Kikai on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.

“She passed away as if falling asleep. As she had been a hard worker, I want to tell her ‘rest well,'” said Tajima’s 65-year-old grandson Hiroyuki, a news source reported.

Ms Tajima raised seven sons and two daughters and reportedly had more than 160 descendants, including great-great-great grandchildren.

She became the world’s oldest person in September after the death of Violet Brown, of Jamaica, who was also aged 117.

The US-based Gerontology Research Group said another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, is now the world’s oldest person.

Ms Miyako, who lives in Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo, turns 117 on 2 May.

Guinness World Records certified 112-year-old Masazo Nonaka of northern Japan as the world’s oldest man earlier this month.

The title of ‘world’s oldest living person’ is a remarkable, if not fleeting, one. Tajima claimed the distinction in September, when fellow 117-year-old Violet Brown died in Jamaica. Brown was the oldest person in the world for about five months.

A great-great-great grandmother who was the world’s oldest person has died at the age of 117.

At 117, Nabi Tajima was older than modern-day Australia, and everyone else known to live on the planet.