Oldest woman dies at 114

2007-08-13 20:56

Tokyo - The world's oldest person, a Japanese woman who counted eating well and getting rest as her hobbies, died on Monday at age 114, a news report said.

Yone Minagawa, a widow who lived in a nursing home but was still sprightly late in life, died "of old age" on Monday evening, Kyodo News reported.

There was no immediate answer to a telephone call placed to city hall in her town in southern Fukuoka prefecture.

Born on January 4 1893, Minagawa was already in her 50s when Japan surrendered in World War 2.

She had been certified as the world's oldest person by the Guinness Book of World Records after Emma Faust Tillman, the daughter of freed American slaves, died in January.

Despite her advanced age, Minagawa was said to enjoy eating sweets and counted eating well and getting a good night's sleep as the secrets of her longevity.

Her nursing home said Minagawa had celebrated becoming the world's oldest person earlier this year with a Western-style lunch of bread, stew, salad and a dessert.

Japanese women are the world's oldest living people, in what experts attribute to a traditionally healthy diet and high standard of medical care.

Their life expectancy was a record 85.81 years in 2006, according to the government.

Japanese men are the world's second oldest with a life expectancy of 78.8 second only to men in Iceland who on average live to be 79.4.

- AFP