Tokyo: The world’s oldest man, Sakari Momoi, has died in Japan at the ripe old age of 112, an official said on Tuesday.
Momoi, born months before the Wright brothers made their first successful flight, passed away late Sunday, said the official at Saitama City, north of Tokyo, where he had lived for many years. The supercentenarian, recognised as the world’s oldest male at the age of 111 last year, died of kidney failure in a care home in Tokyo.
“We heard from his family… that his health worsened one or two weeks ago,” the official said. Momoi, a former high school principal who was born on February 5, 1903, received a certificate from Guinness World Records confirming the achievement last year.
According to the US-based Gerontology Research Group, the title of world’s oldest man now passes to Japan’s Yasutaro Koide, also 112 years old and just over a month younger than Momoi. On the opposite side of the Pacific, the world’s oldest person celebrated her 116th birthday on Monday.
