The man formally recognized as the world’s oldest living male, Chitetsu Watanabe, has passed away in Japan at the age of 112. He died on Sunday, February 23.

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.
The oldest known living person is Kane Tanaka, a woman who celebrated her 117th birthday in January. She is also Japanese.
Watanabe died before he could claim the title of the oldest man ever. He was just four years shy of the record, which was held by Japan’s Jiroemon Kimura, who was born on  April 19, 1897 and passed away in June 2013 at the age of 116 years and 54 days, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.