Shigeko Kagawa (賀川滋子), a resident of Yamatokōriyama, Nara Prefecture, has been confirmed as the new oldest living resident of Japan, following the passing of Ōita’s Miyoko Hiroyasu on 29 July.
Kagawa was born on 28 May 1911. After graduating from Osaka Women’s Medical College (now Kansai Medical University), she became a doctor in her twenties and worked at a hospital in Osaka during the Pacific War. Even as an elderly woman, she was able to remember the sight of the city burnt down by air raids during the war and how people lost their lives in an instant.
After the war, she took over her family’s clinic, and contributed to the local medical care as an obstetrician and gynecologist. She used to have a telephone by her bedside every night and would rush to her patients’ homes when called, early in the morning or late at night. She retired at the age of 86.
In September 2022, Kagawa was reported as the oldest living person in Nara Prefecture.
Kagawa is one of the last two known surviving Japanese people born in 1911, along with Fuyo Kishimoto.
