The world’s oldest person turned 116 in Japan on Tuesday.
Kamato Hongo, who was born in 1887 and currently lives in Kagoshima City, 950km southwest of Tokyo, celebrated her birthday quietly ”by doing her usual dance with her arms”, said her 47-year-old grandson Tsuyoshi Kurauchi.
”She is OK. This is simply another day for her,” he said. ”We don’t care about the world record or anything like that. We just want her to be natural, without any pain,” he said.
On Monday Japan celebrated Respect for the Aged Day, a public holiday, when 140 members of her family and neighbors held a party for Hongo, who slept through the gathering as she normally sleeps for two days and stays awake for two days.
Though she uses a wheelchair and has difficulty hearing, she can move her arms enough to perform the traditional dance of her birthplace of Tokunoshima island off Kagoshima.
Kurauchi said Hongo is weak but not ill and occassionally enjoys shochu, an alcoholic drink traditionally made in the Kyushu region, where she lives.
Guinness World Records named Hongo the oldest person in the world in March 2002, following the death of the previous record-holder Maude Farris-Luse of the United States at the age of 115 years and 56 days.
Japanese women enjoy the highest average life-expectancy in the world with an average lifespan of 85,23 years in 2002.
Japanese men also live long, with an average lifespan of 78,32 years. The longevity of the Japanese has been attributed in part to the healthy traditional diet.
The country also enjoys the distinction of being home to the world’s oldest man, 114-year-old Yukichi Chuganji.
In the increasingly ageing Japanese society, one in five Japanese citizens is now 65 or older, with 24,31-million people in the age group, according to government statistics. — Sapa-AFP