Jiroemon Kimura
Encyclopedia
Jiroemon Kimura is a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese supercentenarian
Supercentenarian
A supercentenarian is someone who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians....

 who, at the age of , is currently the world's oldest living man, since the death of Walter Breuning
Walter Breuning
Walter Breuning 1896 2011) was an American supercentenarian. He was the last known surviving man who was born in 1896. Breuning is the oldest undisputed American-born man on record. He was the last verified American man born in the 19th Century. At the time of his death, Breuning was the third...

 on 14 April 2011. Being 113 years 361 days at the succession (since it was 15 April in Japan when Breuning died), Kimura is the oldest man ever to gain the title of oldest living man. He has been the oldest living man in Japan since the death of Tomoji Tanabe on 19 June 2009 and has been the oldest Japanese man ever since surpassing Yukichi Chuganji
Yukichi Chuganji
was a Japanese supercentenarian and "...was recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest man..." in Japan until his death at age 114 years 189 days....

 on 26 October 2011. He is also the oldest man ever from Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

.

Kimura is currently the 3rd oldest man ever recorded, the 6th oldest undisputed Japanese ever, 4th-oldest verified living person in the world and one of the 40 oldest undisputed people in history. He is the last known living man who was verifiably born in the 1800s.

Life today

Kimura has 7 children (5 surviving), 15 grandchildren (14 surviving), 25 great-grandchildren, and 11 great-great-grandchildren. Kimura is health conscious and active, having worked for the post office for 40 years and after retiring he turned to farming until age 90. He wakes up early in the morning and reads newspapers with a magnifying glass. Also, he enjoys talking to guests and follows live parliamentary debates on television. According to him, small portions of food are the key to a long and healthy life. Kimura resides in Kyoto with his eldest son's widow and grandson's widow. Kimura has outlived 2 of his children and 1 grandson.

On his 114th birthday on 19 April 2011, Kimura mentioned his survival of the 7.6 magnitude
Richter magnitude scale
The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....

 earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

 that hit Kyoto in 1927 and killed over 3,000 people.

Major Milestones

  • 16 October 2007, Jiroemon Kimura aged 110 years 180 days, was added to the Gerontology Research Group
    Gerontology Research Group
    The Gerontology Research Group was started in 1990, and is a global eGroup of researchers in gerontology, some of who also meet monthly at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. The primary function of the group is to further gerontology research, with the objective of reversing or retarding aging...

     list for Guinness World Records
    Guinness World Records
    Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

    .
  • 19 June 2009 Tomoji Tanabe died, Jiroemon Kimura aged 112 years 61 days, became the oldest living man in Japan.
  • 4 November 2010 Eugenie Blanchard
    Eugénie Blanchard
    Anne Eugénie Blanchard was a French supercentenarian, who at the age of was the oldest living person at the time of her death. She became the recognised titleholder upon the death of Japanese supercentenarian Kama Chinen on 2 May 2010...

     died, Jiroemon Kimura aged 113 years 200 days, entered the list of the 10 oldest living people in the world.
  • 19 January 2011, Jiroemon Kimura aged 113 years 275 days, became one of the 10 verified oldest men ever.
  • 14 April 2011 Walter Breuning
    Walter Breuning
    Walter Breuning 1896 2011) was an American supercentenarian. He was the last known surviving man who was born in 1896. Breuning is the oldest undisputed American-born man on record. He was the last verified American man born in the 19th Century. At the time of his death, Breuning was the third...

     died, Jiroemon Kimura aged 113 years 361 days, became the oldest living verified man in the world and the last known living man verifiably born before 1900.
  • 19 April 2011, Jiroemon Kimura became the 6th undisputed man in history to reach 114.
  • 2 August 2011 Venere Pizzinato died, Jiroemon Kimura aged 114 years 105 days, became the 4th oldest living person in the world.
  • 11 September 2011 Tanekichi Onishi died, Jiroemon Kimura aged 114 years 145 days, became the last living Japanese man born in the 19th century and the only known living male supercentenarian in Asia.
  • 26 October 2011, Jiroemon Kimura aged 114 years 190 days, surpassed Yukichi Chuganji
    Yukichi Chuganji
    was a Japanese supercentenarian and "...was recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest man..." in Japan until his death at age 114 years 189 days....

     to become the oldest Japanese man ever and one of the 10 oldest Japanese people ever.
  • 28 November 2011, Jiroemon Kimura aged 114 years 223 days, surpassed Mathew Beard to become the 3rd oldest verified man ever.

See also

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