Respect for the Aged Day is a Japanese public holiday celebrated annually on 16 September to honour the country’s elderly citizens.
Guinness World Records marked the occasion this year by visiting the world’s oldest living person, Tomiko Itooka, who is currently 116 years and 117 days old.
GWR presented her official GWR certificate to her at the nursing home in Ashiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, where she’s resided for the past five years.
Tomiko – wearing her favourite colour, green, for the occasion – held onto the hand of GWR representative Kaoru Ishikawa who read the certificate aloud to her.
Tomiko later expressed her appreciation by saying arigato gozaimasu (thank you very much).
She was accompanied by her second-born son, Hiroshi Kai, who said he never imagined that his mother would become the world’s oldest person, and he was very surprised when she received the record.
Hiroshi shared fond memories of visiting temples with her, an activity they used to do often.
He added that Tomiko also used to walk to the seaside and hike mountains alone, enjoying doing things independently.
Tomiko took the titles of oldest living woman and oldest living person last month, following the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas Morera.
Born in Osaka during the reign of Emperor Meiji, she was the middle child and eldest daughter of her family.
After elementary school, Tomiko attended an all-girls high school where she was a member of the volleyball team.
She got married aged 20 and went on to have two daughters and two sons, as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Tomiko was 32 when Japan joined World War II, during which time she managed the office of her husband’s textile factory in addition to caring for all her children.
After Tomiko’s husband died in 1979, she lived alone in Nara Prefecture and enjoyed spending her time hiking and climbing.
She often climbed Mount Nijo, and she twice summited the 3,000-metre-high Mount Ontake.
A devout Buddhist, she completed the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage (a journey to 33 temples in the Kansai region) in her eighties.
When aged 100, she remained able to climb the stone steps of Ashiya Shrine without the aid of a walking stick.
Tomiko is currently the 23rd-oldest person in recorded history, and she’ll jump to 21st place in just under two weeks’ time.
The oldest person ever authenticated was Jeanne Calment (France), who lived to the age of 122 years 164 days.
See the video clip of the presentation, courtesy, GWR:
