Japanese citizen Jiroemon Kimura, certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest-living man in recorded history, died early Wednesday at 116, local media reported, according to RIA Novosti.
Kimura died of natural causes in his home city of Kyotango, NHK television said. He was hospitalized with pneumonia earlier.
Kimura, born in 1897, worked as a postal employee in Japan for 40 years before proceeding to become a farmer, an occupation from which he retired at 90. He had seven children, 14 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, and 15 great-great-grandchildren.
The oldest living person in the world is now Misao Okawa, a kimono maker’s daughter from Osaka, who is 115, Japan’s branch of the Guinness Book of Record said.
The person with the longest verified lifespan in history was French native Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at 122.
