Shirō Moriyama

BIOGRAPHY

Moriyama was born in Shizunai (now part of Shinhidaka), Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan, on 6 March 1911, as the fourth of seven children. After working for the Japanese National Railways, he became a farmer and raised vegetables and racehorses. He had four sons and a daughter.

After retiring from farming in his 50s, he took up mountain climbing as a hobby and climbed mountains all over the country until his 80s, including the Hidaka Mountains and Mount Fuji. Even at the age of 100, he still enjoyed taking a bus to nearby hot springs.

In 2014, he moved into a local nursing home. He enjoyed watching live horse racing and conversing with other residents of the nursing home. At the age of 110, he had 11 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. It was reported that he was never seriously ill, and the secret to his longevity was that he ate whatever he liked and disliked without leaving any leftovers.

His older brother, Katsu Moriyama (1905–2012), lived to the age of 106, making them among the longest-lived sibling pairs with a combined age of over 217.

Moriyama passed away of natural causes in Shinhidaka, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan, on 19 March 2022, at the age of 111 years, 13 days.

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RECOGNITION

In September 2017, at the age of 106, he was reported as the 8th-oldest living man in Hokkaido Prefecture.

In September 2019, he was reported as the second-oldest living man in Hokkaido Prefecture, after Kinsaku Hayashinaka. He received widespread media coverage. Upon Hayashinaka’s passing on 17 November 2020, he became the oldest living man in the Prefecture.

At the time of his death, he was the third-oldest living man in Japan, behind Mikizo Ueda and Shigeru Nakamura.