Hisako Shiroishi, Saitama Prefecture’s oldest living person, dies at 114
The Gerontology Research Group (GRG) is saddened to report news that Mrs. Hisako Shiroishi, the oldest living person in Saitama Prefecture, the third-oldest living person in Japan, and the oldest person ever in Saitama Prefecture, died in Higashichichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan on 26 August 2024 at the age of 114 years, 99 days.
Hisako Shiroishi was born in the village of Takezawa (now part of Ogawa Town), Saitama Prefecture, Japan on 19 May 1910 as the second of seven siblings. She lived through the Great Kanto Earthquake on 1 September 1923, when she was 13 years old. After completing compulsory education, she helped with housework and worked on the family farm. In her late 20s, she married a slightly younger farmer from a neighboring town. They were blessed with four children. After losing her husband to illness, she continued farming while raising her four children on her own. In her 40s, she had a successful surgery to remove the cancer. Until her 80s, she participated in local gateball, and until her mid-90s, she enjoyed farm work and gardening. She lived with her family at home without nursing care services until she was 105. Until she was about 108 years old, she made it a point to walk 100 meters every day and worked diligently to maintain her mobility.
On 19 May 2020, Shiroishi celebrated her 110th birthday, becoming a supercentenarian.
On 18 September 2020, following the death of 110-year-old Chiyo Kato, she became the oldest living person in Saitama Prefecture.
On 10 June 2023, at the age of 113 years, 22 days, she surpassed the final age of Tane Shimada (1903–2016), becoming the oldest person to ever live in Saitama Prefecture.
Her age was verified by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW), as well as Yu Li and Yumi Yamamoto, and validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) on 11 March 2023.
At the time of her death, she was the seventh-oldest living person in the world and the third-oldest living person in Japan (behind Tomiko Itooka and Okagi Hayashi).
