Kame Higa
- Full name: Kame Higa [Japanese: 比嘉カメ]
- Lifespan: 1892-06-22 – 2005-02-23
- Age: 112 years, 246 days
- Birthplace: Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
- Last residence: Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
- Application date: N/A
- Validation date: 2003-01-22
- Validation source: Yasuhiko Saito
Biography
Kame Higa was born in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan on 22 June 1892. She was the fifth out of 8 siblings, all of whom died aged 40 or less; her four older siblings died young, while her two younger brothers died in their 20s.
At the age of 20, she married, and would later give birth to nine children: seven sons and two twin daughters. Five of Higa’s children were still alive at the time of her death; two of her sons, as well as her husband, died in World War II, while one of her daughters and her youngest son both died at the age of 3.
Higa worked as a farmer and tofu maker until she was 50, when she went to Taiwan as a war refugee, and she sold tobacco alone. At this time, she started smoking; whenever she was upset or deep in thought, she would smoke 20 cigarettes a month. She did not drink alcohol.
After World War II, Higa returned home and started a shop which sold daily miscellaneous items, which she continued to run until she was 90. At the age of 60, she had cataract surgery on her right eye. She disliked eating beef and drinking milk. There was nothing that particularly worried her, and she liked to be at her shop and converse with her patrons. At the age of 100, she could still calculate financial transactions.
Following the death of 110-year-old Kame Uei on 30 January 2003, Higa became the oldest living person in Okinawa Prefecture.
Kame Higa died in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan on 23 February 2005, at the age of 112 years, 246 days.
Validation
The supercentenarian case of Kame Higa is verified by Yasuhiko Saito and validated by the Gerontology Research Group on 22.01.2003.
Higa as a supercentenarian, photographed by Jerry Friedman
