Kimura, who became the oldest living Japanese man after Tomoji Tanabe's death on 19 June 2009, two months after celebrating his 112th birthday and being the 7th Japanese man to do so, became the oldest living man in the world as well as the oldest man to receive the title as the oldest living man after Americanman Walter Breuning's death on 15 April 2011 (Breuning, who was 30 weeks older, died on 14 April 2011 Montana Time), just four days before celebrating his 114th birthday and becoming the second Japanese man and the 7th man in the world to do so. Later that year, on 26 October, Kimura became the oldest Japanese man ever and the 5th oldest ever in the world after breaking the record of Yukichi Chuganji.