RIP: Tsuneyo Toyonaga

Tsuneyo Toyonaga
21 May 1894 - 22 Feb 2008

ZUI this article from the Associated Press:

Japan's oldest person has died at a hospital in southwestern Japan, her nursing home said Saturday. She was 113.

Tsuneyo Toyonaga, who became the country's oldest person last August, died Friday, days after she was transferred to a nearby hospital because she lost her appetite, said Masuko Yamamoto, deputy director of the Yume-no-Sato nursing home in the southern city of Nangoku.

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Toyonaga is survived by five children and 10 grandchildren, Kyodo News agency said.

Kaku Yamanaka, born on Dec. 11, 1894, is now Japan's oldest person, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. She lives in a nursing home in Aichi, central Japan.

(What? No great-grandchildren?)

According to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG), Mrs Toyonaga was the fifth-oldest person in the world at the time of her death. She is the sixth validated supercentenarian to die since Mary Marques (11 Feb 1896-3 Jan 2008); the others were Miyae Nishiyama of Japan (10 Jan 1896-16 Jan 2008), Louis de Cazenave of France (16 Oct 1897-20 Jan 2008), Suwa Kondou of Japan (15 Nov 1897-22 Jan 2008), Haya Kurogi of Japan (10 Jan 1897-2 Feb 2008) and Harvey Hite of Indiana (15 Nov 1897-16 Feb 2008).

Kaku Yamanaka, now the oldest person in Japan, is the seventh-oldest person in the world. Tomoji Tanabe, born 18 Sep 1895, is the oldest living Japanese man and the third-oldest Japanese (as well as the oldest man, and the 16th-oldest person, in the world).

The GRG's list of validated supercentenarians currently includes 80 people - 69 women and 11 men - ranging from Edna Parker of Indiana (born 20 Apr 1893) to Dr Leila Denmark of Georgia (born 1 Feb 1898). 24 of them live in Japan.