The world’s oldest man has died at the ripe old age of 112.
Chitetsu Watanabe, of Joetsu City, Niigata, in Japan, had been certified as a Guinness World Record on February 12 before passing away on Sunday.
He died just 11 days before his 113th birthday at 11.10 pm local time on February 23, according to reports, with Englishman Bob Weighton having now taken over his mantle of the world’s oldest living man.
Mr. Watanabe had succeeded German Gustav Gerneth who died on October 22, 2019, putting his long life down to laughing often and not getting angry, as well as trying his best to eat healthily.
He had lived with his son’s family until six years ago when he moved to a retirement facility at the age of 108 following a bout of flu.
Mr. Watanabe’s parents had been farmers and he’d been born on March 5, 1907, in the village of Uragawara, now Joetsu, in Niigata and went on to study at Niigata Prefectural Takada Agricultural High School.
He then moved to Taiwan to work at sugarcane company Dai-Nippon Sugar Company until the end of the Second World War before returning to Joetsu.