A Japanese 112-year-old ‘who became the world’s oldest man for just two days’ actually died before his predecessor and never held the title, Guinness World Records revealed.
He passed away in Tateyama, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, at the end of March, meaning he never became the world’s oldest man after Juan Vicente Pérez, who had been 114, died on April 2.
It was originally reported that Sonobe had been given the world’s oldest man crown for just two days before his death, but Guinness has now confirmed that this was not the case. Even though Sonobe may have only lived to be the world’s second oldest man,
he witnessed an impressive set of historic moments ranging from the start of the Taisho era with the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912, and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.