February 24, 2008	Sunday	Safar 16, 1429

TOKYO, Feb 23: Japan’s oldest person, Tsuneyo Toyonaga, has died of natural causes aged 113, Kyodo news agency said.

“She was a joker and had a cheerful personality,” the agency quoted a nursing home official as saying.

Toyonaga, who had five children and 10 grandchildren and lived in Nankoku city, in western Japan, lived to 113 and 9 months, it said. She was born in 1894.

Japan’s oldest person is now Kaku Yamanaka, a woman aged 113 years and 2 months, it said.

Japanese women have topped the world’s longevity ranks for 22 years. A Japanese girl born in 2006 can expect to live an average age of 85.8 years, according to government calculations.

—Reuters