TOKYO -- Yone Minagawa, who became the world's oldest person earlier this year, has died at a nursing home in southwestern Japan, an official said Tuesday.
She was 114.
Minagawa, who raised four sons and a daughter on her own by peddling flowers and vegetables, died Monday afternoon, said Toshiro Tachibana, an official at the nursing home in the former mining town Fukuchi.
The attending physician gave old age as the cause of death, he said.
"Her appetite had been declining recently and her energy fading, so the family had asked us to make her as comfortable as possible. The death was not sudden,'' Tachibana said.
Born Jan. 4, 1893, Minagawa was named the world's oldest person by the Guinness Book of World Records in January following the death of Emma Faust Tillman, also 114, in the United States.
Minagawa outlived all of her children, except one daughter and has seven grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, the nursing home said.
The world's oldest person is now 114-year-old Edna Parker of Shelbyville, Ind., who was born April 20, 1893, the Gerontology Research Group said.
Japan has one of the world's longest average life spans -- a factor often attributed to a healthy diet rich in fish and rice.
The world's oldest man is also Japanese -- Tomoji Tanabe, 111, born Sept. 18, 1895. Tanabe lives in the southern city Miyazaki, Guinness World Records said.
In 2006, Japanese women set a new record for life expectancy at 85.81 years, while men live an average of about 79 years.
The number of Japanese living beyond 100 has almost quadrupled in the last 10 years and is soon expected to surpass 28,000, the government announced last September.
Fukuchi is about 840 kilometres southwest of Tokyo.
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