TOKYO: The oldest living man of the planet, Chitetsu Watanabe, has passed away in Japan at the age of 112, the Niigata prefecture government said in a statement.

According to the details, Chitetsu Watanabe, a resident of the city of Joetsu in central Japan, died on Sunday, Japanese media according to Kyodo News.

Watanabe was born in Niigata in northern Japan on March 5, 1907. He had received an official certificate from the Guinness World Records naming him the oldest man alive only on February 12. The previous record holder was Masazo Nonaka, another Japanese man, who died last month.

According to the sources of CNN, Watanabe died before he could claim the title of the oldest man ever. He was just four years shy of the record, which is held by Japan’s Jiroemon Kimura, who was born on 19 April 1897 and passed away aged 116 years and 54 days on June 2013, according to Guinness.

In an interview with a local paper in January 2019, Watanabe said the secret to living a long life was “not to get angry and keep a smile on your face.”