Tomiko Itooka of Japan, World’s Oldest Person, Dies at 116

Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman born before the start of World War I and the sinking of the Titanic who was believed to be the oldest person in the world, died at a nursing home in Ashiya, Japan. She was 116.

In a statement released on Saturday, the mayor of Ashiya said Ms. Itooka passed away last Sunday. He did not give a cause, but local news media reports said she died peacefully of complications related to old age.

“I offer my deepest condolences,” said the mayor, Ryosuke Takashima. “Ms. Itooka gave us great courage and hope throughout her long life. I would like to express my gratitude once again.”

Ms. Itooka was declared the oldest living person by Guinness World Records in September after the death of Maria Branyas Morera of Spain at age 117.

Ms. Itooka was born Tomiko Yano on May 23, 1908, in the city of Osaka, one of three children in a family that ran a clothing store. At that time, her country was a rising imperial power that had just defeated czarist Russia in war and was embarking on expansion into mainland Asia.

In the year of her birth, Japan signed an agreement with President Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary of state that averted conflict with the United States in exchange for Washington recognizing Japan’s annexation of the Korean Peninsula. During the span of her life, she saw her nation emerge as an Asian colonial empire, fall in fiery defeat in 1945 and rise again as an industrial giant and peaceful democracy.

Growing up in prewar Japan, she played volleyball in high school before marrying the owner of a textile company, Kenji Itooka, with whom she had two daughters and two sons. During World War II, she stayed in Japan to run the business while her husband went to Korea, then a Japanese colony, to