| Misao Okawa | |
 Okawa on her 116th birthday in 2014. | |
| Birth: | 5 March 1898 Tenma-Ku, Osaka, Japan |
| Death: | 1 April 2015 Higashisumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, Japan |
| Age: | 117 years, 27 days |
| Country: |  JPN
|
| Validated | |
Misao Okawa [Japanese: 大川ミサヲ] (née Aoki; 5 March 1898 – 1 April 2015), also sometimes romanized as Misawo Okawa, was a Japanese supercentenarian who was the oldest living person in the world from the death of the 116-year-old Jiroemon Kimura, who was also the oldest validated man ever, until her own death on 1 April 2015. She was also the oldest person ever from Japan until 1 September 2017, when her age was surpassed by Nabi Tajima. She currently ranks as the oldest validated person ever from Osaka Prefecture, the fourth-oldest Japanese person ever (behind Kane Tanaka, Nabi Tajima, and Chiyo Miyako), and the 12th-oldest person on record whose age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG). She was also the last surviving Japanese person born in the 1800s.
Biography
Misao Okawa was born to a kimono maker on 5 March 1898, in Tenma-Ku (now Kita-ku), Osaka, Japan. Prior to her marriage, she helped with her family’s clothing business. She married her husband Yukio, who ran his own business in Kobe, in 1919 and had three children, two daughters and a son. As of February 2013, only one of her daughters, Shizuyo (aged 97), and her son Hiroshi (aged 99), were still alive. Her husband died on 20 June 1931 at the age of 36. Following the death of her husband, Okawa moved back to Osaka with her three children. In 2000, she broke her leg at the age of 102. But she said that she was doing leg squats. She was able to walk until she was age 110, after which she needed a wheelchair to prevent her from falling over.
Okawa died in Higashisumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, Japan, on 1 April 2015 from heart failure, at the age of 117 years, 27 days. After her death, Gertrude Weaver (also born 1898) became the oldest living person, though only for five days. She was also the oldest living woman after the death of Koto Okubo on 12 January 2013 until her own death over two years later.
Gallery
References
- Gerontology Research Group
- World's oldest person Misao Okawa dies aged 117
- World's oldest person Misao Okawa dies in Japan
| Japan's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (V • T • E) |
|
Waka Shirahama • Tane Ikai • Sue Utagawa • Suekiku Miyanaga • Asa Takii • Tase Matsunaga • Yasu Akino • Denzo Ishizaki • Kayo Fujii • Mie Ishiguro • Matsuno Oikawa • Yukichi Chuganji • Mitoyo Kawate • Ura Koyama • Yone Minagawa • Shitsu Nakano • Tsuneyo Toyonaga • Kaku Yamanaka • Kama Chinen • Chiyono Hasegawa • Jiroemon Kimura • Misao Okawa • Anonymous (Tokyo) • Nabi Tajima • Chiyo Miyako • Kane Tanaka • Fusa Tatsumi • Tomiko Itooka |
| Japan's Oldest Living Woman Titleholders (V • E) |
|
Sue Watanabe • Unknown • Tome Yoshida • Haru Komai • Ishi Hayashi • Yoshigiku Ito • Tome Horigome • Haruno Shimada • Mito Umeta • Niwa Kawamoto • Isa Nakayama • Man Ichikawa • Koume Kabira • Matsu Yoshikuni • Koharu Kodaira • Oto Michii • Toka Miyata • Momu Okuma • Ine Tsugawa • Seki Takehara • Waka Shirahama • Tane Ikai • Sue Utagawa • Suekiku Miyanaga • Asa Takii • Tase Matsunaga • Yasu Akino • Kayo Fujii • Mie Ishiguro • Matsuno Oikawa • Mitoyo Kawate • Ura Koyama • Yone Minagawa • Shitsu Nakano • Tsuneyo Toyonaga • Kaku Yamanaka • Kama Chinen • Chiyono Hasegawa • Koto Okubo • Misao Okawa • Anonymous (Tokyo) • Nabi Tajima • Chiyo Miyako • Kane Tanaka • Fusa Tatsumi • Tomiko Itooka |