A Japanese woman who climbed a mountain without a walking stick when she turned 100 has been named the new world’s oldest person at the age of 116.    

Tomiko Itooka, has succeeded 117-year-old Spanish pensioner Maria Branyas Morera who died this week, the Guinness World Records has said.

Her favourite food is bananas and she has been climbing mountains for decades, including the legendary peak Mount Ontake that stands at over 10,000ft tall. 

Tomiko’s greatest physical achievement is said to be her scaling the notoriously difficult Ashiya Shrine after she turned 100 – with no stick. 

Her family believe it is active lifestyle that has led her to live such an incredibly long life. 

Tomiko Itooka celebrating her 116th birthday in May this year

Tomiko’s greatest physical achievement is said to be her scaling the notoriously difficult Ashiya Shrine after she turned 100 – with no stick

Tomiko with her cake, flowers and balloons on her 116th birthday this year 

Tomiko is currently living in a nursing home in the Japanese city of Ashiya, in the Hyogo Prefecture. 

She was born in Osaka on May 23, 1908 and was a volleyball player in high school. 

She married at 20, and had two daughters and two sons, according to the Guinness World Records.

Tomiko managed the office of her husband’s textile factory during World War II whilst taking care of the four children at home.

She lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979, before entering the nursing home. 

When told about her becoming the oldest person, she replied, ‘Thank you,’ a phrase she also relays often to the caretakers at her home.

Itooka celebrated her birthday three months ago, receiving flowers, a cake and a card from the mayor.

Every morning, she has a popular yogurt-flavored drink called Calpis. 

Tomiko is currently living in a nursing home in the Japanese city of Ashiya, in the Hyogo Prefecture

Tomiko celebrating her 111th birthday five years ago 

Tomiko’s was passed on the title of the world’s oldest living person by Spanish pensioner Maria Branyas Morera, who was born in the United States and survived a plague epidemic and two world wars. 

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World’s oldest person Maria Branyas Morera dies aged 117, family reveals

‘Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain,’ her family wrote on her account on X on Tuesday. ‘We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness,’ they said.

Branyas lived her last two decades in the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in the town of Olot in northeastern Spain, and celebrated her 117th birthday there back in March.

Experts had marveled at her mental and physical health, but in a heartbreaking final message to her social media followers on Tuesday, she warned that she felt ‘weak’.

‘The time is near. Don’t cry, I don’t like tears. And above all, don’t suffer for me,’ she said on the account, which is run by her family. ‘Wherever I go, I will be happy.’

Guinness World Records had officially acknowledged Branyas’s status as the world’s oldest person in January 2023 following the death of French nun Lucile Randon aged 118.

The title of the oldest person to have ever lived belongs to Jeanne Louise Calment whose life spanned 122 years and 164 days, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Maria Branyas Morera, who was the oldest person in the world, celebrating her 117th birthday in March

Branyas was born in San Francisco in 1907. Pictured: Branyas in 1925 when she was just 18

Branyas became the world’s oldest person following the death of French nun Lucile Randon in January 2023

Ms Morera married Catalan doctor Joan Moret aged 23 in 1931