Japan’s oldest person, Shigeko Kagawa, has died at the age of 115, with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare confirming her death on Monday.
Kagawa, who was from Nara Prefecture in western Japan, passed away on Thursday, according to Kyodo News. Her death means the title of Japan’s oldest living person has now passed to 114-year-old Fuyo Kishimoto from Kyoto, also in western Japan.
Kagawa had lived through more than a century of major changes in Japan and had an impressive career in medicine. She completed her medical studies before the outbreak of the Second World War.
During the war, she worked at a hospital in Osaka, where she continued serving patients despite the difficult circumstances of the period.
After the war, Kagawa went on to establish her own women’s clinic, continuing her medical career for decades before eventually retiring at the age of 86.
Her death marks the end of the life of one of Japan’s oldest residents, while Kishimoto now takes over as the country’s oldest person at 114.
