World’s Oldest Living Man, Who Said Secret to Long Life Was 'To Smile,' Dies at 112

Chitetsu Watanabe died on Sunday, Feb. 23 at the age of 112, just 11 days after he was confirmed by the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living man.

News of Watanabe’s death was announced on Tuesday, in a statement from the Niigata prefecture government obtained by CNN.

He is survived by his five children, 12 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild, USA Today reported.

Watanabe was born in Niigata — the northern port city on Honshu, Japan’s main island — back on March 5, 1907, according to a Guinness World Records profile of him earlier this month.

The first of his parents’ eight children, he would go on to study agriculture and find work as a staffer at Dai-Nippon Meiji Sugar. He later relocated to Taiwan to help conclude sugar can plantation contracts there.

It would be 18 years before Watanabe returned to his hometown. During his time away, he married a woman named Mitsue, with whom he would have five children. He also served in the Japanese military, during the Pacific War in 1944, according to the Guinness profile.

Back home, Watanabe got a job in the agricultural branch of the Niigata Prefectural office. He worked there until his retirement and stayed active in agriculture until well after that, growing fruits and vegetables at his home farm until he was 104.

His collection of bonsai trees, of which he had upwards of 100, earned him spots at local exhibitions until 2007.

The later years of Watanabe’s life were spent in a nursing home in Niigata, according to Guinness.

It was there, on Feb. 12, that he was presented with the Guinness World Records’ title of oldest living man. At the ceremony, which was filmed by the organization and put on its YouTube page, Watanabe wore a blazer and sat in a wheelchair. He smiled widely throughout, holding a bouquet of flowers he was gifted, and posing with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He even snacked on a piece of cake.

When asked there what the secret was to a long life, Watanabe said, “to smile.”

Guinness World Records reported that his wife had previously said being around his family helped keep him young.

Watanabe was just four years shy of being Guinness World Records’ oldest man ever. That title belongs to Japan’s Jiroemon Kimura, who died at the age of 116 years (and 54 days) on June 12, 2013, according to Guinness.

The organization’s oldest woman alive — Kane Tanaka, also from Japan — recently celebrated her 117th birthday in January.