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Japan’s oldest man passes away, thought to have been last male born in the Meiji period

Chiba centenarian was former school teacher.

Last month, Gisaburo Sonobe, a resident of the town of Tateyama in Chiba Prefecture, passed away. If you’re thinking that Gisaburo sounds like a decidedly old-fashioned name, you’re right, but that’s to be expected when you consider that Sonobe was a decidedly old man. In fact, he was Japan’s oldest man, a distinction he held since November of 2022, having lived to the age of 112 years old.

Being Japan’s oldest male resident wasn’t the only noteworthy thing about Sonobe’s lifespan, though. Sonobe was born in November of 1911, and is thought to have been the last surviving person in Japan who was born during the Meiji period of Japanese history.

In Japan, every time a new emperor ascends the throne, a new imperial era begins. For example, when current Emperor Naruhito as coronated in 2019, the Reiwa era began, making 2024 also Reiwa 5, or the fifth year of Reiwa. To get to the Meiji era, you’ve got to go back four periods, past the Heisei (1989-2019), Showa (1926-1989) and Taisho (1912-1926) periods. And while Sonobe just squeezed into the Meiji period, which lasted from 1868 to 1912, he was still born in the very first era since Japan stopped being under the rein of a shogun and a ruling class of samurai warlords.

Sonobe worked as a middle and high school teacher in Chiba, teaching Japanese language and social studies classes, until he hit retirement age. After that he began working at a library, a position he held until turning 80 and retiring entirely. In his free time, he enjoyed reading, and in his elderly years maintained a well-balanced diet and did taiso, a kind of light stretching exercise routine, on a daily basis.

Sonobe passed away on March 31. No cause of death has been made public, though it’s practically a certainty that it was, in one form or another, old age. As someone who spent so many years working with the community’s children (he’s said to have continued exchanging nengajo, New Year’s cards, with former students until the age of 110.), he’s someone who no doubt not only saw many changes over the course of his life, but was also able to make many positive ones of his own happen too.

Source: NHK, Jiji via Jin, Gerontology Research Group, Longeviquest
Top image: Pakutaso
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