The Japanese supercentenarian recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living man has died at 112.
Yasutaro Koide, born in March 1903 — months before the Wright brothers made the world’s first powered flight — died early Tuesday in the Japanese city of Nagoya, said Akira Yamase, a representative of Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Koide’s death came just five months after Guinness presented him with a certificate of his title in Nagoya.
“I felt very honored that I have had a chance to meet Mr. Yasutaro Koide last summer, surrounded by his warm family and relatives,” Erika Ogawa, vice president of Guinness World Records Japan, said in an online post about Koide’s death. “The stories of his adolescent years encouraged all of us who were there. I would like to express my sorrow and condolences to him and his family.”
Koide, a former tailor from Tsuruga, Japan, was still living at home and attending a day care center as of last summer, according to Guinness. He moved to Nagoya about five years ago to be with his daughter, Guinness said.
The record-keeping organization said it will announce Koide’s successor as oldest living man once a verification process is finished.
Guinness recognizes Susannah Mushatt Jones of Brooklyn, New York, as the world’s oldest person at 116. Born in July 1899, she is one of only two people still alive that Guinness certifies as having been born in the 1800s, along with Italy’s Emma Morano (born November 1899).
The oldest person ever recognized by Guinness was France’s Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.
