Shigechiyo Izumi of Isen on Tokunoshima, an island 820 miles Southwest of Tokyo, JAPAN, lived to be 120 years 237 days old. He was born in Insen on June 29, 1865, and was recorded as a six-year-old in Japan's first Census of 1871. He died on February 21, 1986 of pneumonia. It is claimed that he worked until he was 105 years old, drank barley wine, and took up smoking cigarettes at the age of 70.
Mr. Louis Epstein of New York adds, "As a curious coincidence, Izumi died on Jeanne Calment's 111th birthday. Whether he really was born in 1865 is still open to question by experts, as the 6-year-old recorded in the 1871 Japanese Census might, in fact, have been a brother who died young and for whom he was named. However, for practical purposes, he remains the Guinness historical male recordholder
