108-Year-Old Japanese Woman Named World's Oldest Female Barber

Shitsui Hakoishi may be a centenarian, but she has no plans to retire anytime soon.

TOKYO (AP) — Meet the world’s oldest female barber: She is 108 but the slender, white-haired Japanese woman has no plans to retire anytime soon.

Shitsui Hakoishi says the formal recognition by the Guinness World Records this week brought her much joy — other than her satisfied customers, that is.

She was presented with an official certificate from the international franchise on Wednesday. Guinness World Records has a separate category for male barbers but the man who was certified at age 107 in 2018, Anthony Mancinelli of the United States, has died in the meantime, leaving Hakoishi as the only holder of the record.

Her career has spanned nine decades and she says she owes it all to her customers.

“I could come this far only because of my customers,” Hakoishi told a televised news conference Wednesday at a gymnasium in her hometown of Nakagawa in the Tochigi prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. “I’m overwhelmed and filled with joy.”