Tokyo's Arakawa Ward has deleted the resident registry of a woman who has not been seen for 40 years and would be 110 years old if still alive, ward officials said Tuesday.
The woman was listed as the 19th-oldest person in Japan when the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry revealed the number of centenarians in the country two weeks ago.
The ward included the woman in its centenarians list submitted to the ministry and never ascertained her whereabouts. Earlier reports said relatives had kept claiming she was moving around, staying with other kin, and a daughter-in-law had been accepting her health insurance benefits.
Relatives have now asked the ward to erase her resident registry and not try to look for her, without providing further explanation, the officials said.
The Basic Resident Register Law stipulates that local governments must delete the resident registry of a person whose whereabouts cannot be confirmed.