Masazo Nonaka died in the early hours of Sunday while sleeping at his home – a hot springs inn – in northern Japan.
113-year-old Masazo Nonaka died peacefully from natural causes in the early hours of Sunday while sleeping in the inn in Ashoro, which has been run by his family for four generations, located on Japan’s northern main island.
Nonaka’s granddaughter Yuko, who runs the inn, told news outlets, “We feel shocked at the loss of this big figure. He was as usual yesterday and passed away without causing our family any fuss at all.”
Nonaka was born on 25 July 1905, years before the First World War began. He had six brothers and one sister, marrying in 1931 and fathering five children.
In retirement, he enjoyed watching sumo wrestling on TV and eating sweets, according to local media.
The oldest verified person ever is Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who – according to Guinness – died in 1997 at the age of 122.
The fastest-aging country in the world, Japan, as of September 2018, had a centenarian population of 69,785, nearly 90 percent of them women, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
