He died of natural causes at the hospital on April 14, 2011 at 3:30 p.m. aged 114 years, 205 days and was survived by his niece, 3 nephews, and a great niece and nephews. He was succeeded as the oldest living man by Japanese Jiroemon Kimura, who later became the oldest man ever, and was (until Kimura surpassed his age) the third-oldest man in history, after Christian Mortensen and Emiliano Mercado del Toro.