Jiroemon Kimura won the title with the death in Barbados last week of James Emmanuel 'Doc' Sisnett, at the age of 113 years and 90 days.
According to the Gerontolgy Research Group at University of California, Los Angeles, 21 women born before New Year's Day in 1901 are still living.
Most are in the US and Japan, others in Europe and Canada. However, Kimura is now the only male alive to have been born in the 19th century.
Kimura retired in 1962 at the age of 65 after working 45 years in the Japanese post office.
He now lives in Kyotango, Kyoto Prefecture, with his eldest son's widow, 83, and his grandson's widow, 59, and attributes his long life to eating small portions of food, and admits to spending most of his time "in bed".
The world's oldest living woman, 115-year-old Misao Okawa, also lives in Japan.
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