RIP: Kaku Yamanaka

Kaku Yamanaka
11 Dec 1894 - 5 Apr 2008

ZUI this article from the Associated Press:

Kaku Yamanaka, Japan's oldest person, has died of old age in central Japan, officials said Saturday. She was 113.

Yamanaka died at a hospital where she was taken early Saturday after falling ill at a nursing home in Yatomi City in Aichi prefecture (state), an official at her nursing home said on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

Born on Dec. 11, 1894, Yamanaka became Japan's oldest person when Tsuneyo Toyonaga, 113, died in February. It was not immediately clear who had become Japan's new oldest person, and Health Ministry officials were not available for comment Saturday.

According to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG), Yamanaka was the sixth-oldest person in the world at the time of her death. They now list Chiyo Shiraishi (born 6 Aug 1895) as the oldest living person in Japan and the 13th-oldest person in the world.

Yamanaka is the third supercentenarian to die since the death of Arbella Ewing on 22 Mar 08. The others were Charlessa Wiggins of Illinois (9 Feb 1898-29 Mar 2008) and Yakup Satar of Turkey (11 Mar 1898-2 Apr 2008).

The GRG's list of validated living supercentenarians (people who have reached their 110th birthday) currently includes 78 people (11 men and 67 women), ranging from Edna Parker of Indiana (born 20 Apr 1893) to Dr Leila Denmark of Georgia (born 1 Feb 1898). Twenty of them - four men and sixteen women - live in Japan.