Tokyo’s oldest woman has not been seen for around 50 years, officials said yesterday, days after they found the three-decade-old skeleton of a man who was thought to be celebrating his 111th birthday.

The missing woman was listed as 113-year-old Fusa Furuya, who was registered as living with her 79-year-old daughter in Tokyo’s Suginami ward.

But when officials visited the apartment, the daughter said she had not seen her mother “for about 50 years”, Jiji Press reported.

Alarmed Japanese author-ities have launched a search for other centenarians. Fast-greying Japan, with a high life expectancy and a low birthrate, had an estimated 40,000 people over 100 years of age as of last September.

Officials in the Japanese capital also said yesterday they were also trying to determine the whereabouts of 102-year-old Tokyo resident Kazuo Tashiro.

His daughter-in-law Misao said that he suddenly disappeared nearly four decades ago. “He was already missing in 1972 when I married his son,” she told reporters. “We figured he would contact us if something happened.”