Nonaka died in his sleep of natural causes at age 113 years, 179 days at 1:30am on 20 January 2019 as the 13th oldest man (before being surpassed by Gustav Gerneth) ever and the youngest of only four Japanese men having lived to age 113 (behind Jiroemon Kimura, Yukichi Chuganji and Tomoji Tanabe), and was succeeded as the oldest living man by Germanman Gustav Gerneth, who was less than 12 weeks younger and died nine months later, and as Japan's oldest living man by Chitetsu Watanabe and as Hokkaido's oldest living person by Aomori-born Tari Chiba. Nonaka and Gerneth were, after American man Richard Overton's death on 27 December 2018, the last two living men born before 1907. Nonaka was also the last living person from Hokkaido born before 1907, since Seki Inagaki died at age 112 years, 40 days on 14 December 2018.