Japanese man Jiroemon Kimura becomes the oldest ever known
Family of 115-year-old Jiroemon Kimura, who now has 13 great-great grandchildren, say he still has a positive and optimistic outlook on life
Jiroemon Kimura, a 115-year-old Japanese man born when Queen Victoria reigned over the British Empire, yesterday became the oldest man in recorded history, Guinness World Records said.
Kimura, of Kyotango, western Japan, was born April 19, 1897. That makes him 115 years and 253 days as of yesterday, breaking the longevity record for men held by Christian Mortensen of California, who died in 1998. The oldest person in recorded history, Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, died in 1997 at the age of 122.
"He has an amazingly strong will to live," Kimura's nephew Tamotsu Miyake, 80, said. "He is strongly confident that he lives right and well."
The old man lives with his grandson's widow, Eiko Kimura, in a two-storey wooden house he built in the 1960s. Eiko wakes him up every day at 7.30am and takes him by wheelchair to a dining room for breakfast consisting of porridge and miso soup with potatoes and vegetables. He has never suffered from serious disease, can communicate and spends most of his time in bed, Eiko said.
"Grandpa is positive and optimistic," she said. "He becomes cheerful when he has guests. He's well with a good appetite. Even when he falls ill, I can tell he will recover."
However, he was in a hospital yesterday morning for a minor ailment, Yasuhiro Kawato, head of the section for elderly welfare at Kyotango's city hall, said.
"His condition has improved, and we're not worried, but the doctors said it would be best if he stayed in the hospital into the new year," Kawato said.