World's Oldest Man Passes Away in Japan, Oldest Living Man is Also Japanese

Sakari Momoi, the world's oldest man, passed away at the age of 112 in Japan. He resided in the Saitama area north of Tokyo and died on the night of Sunday, July 14. According to officials, the cause of his death was kidney failure. His health had deteriorated over the past week or two, according to family members. Mr. Momoi, born in February 1903, was a former high school principal. The Guinness World Records recognized him as the oldest man in the world with verified birth records. Last year, this elderly Japanese man told reporters gathered to see him during his Guinness registration that he did not plan to go anywhere and wanted to live for about two more years. Sakari Momoi was born in Minamisoma, Fukushima, the same area severely affected by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011. According to calculations by a gerontology research institute in the U.S., the next oldest man, who now takes the title of oldest, is another Japanese man named Yasutaro Koido, who is only one month younger than Mr. Momoi. The oldest person in the world is an American woman named Susannah Mushatt Jones, who turned 116 on Monday.