The world’s oldest person , who lived in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, died on April 19 at the age of 119, according to the authorities.
Kane Tanaka was born on January 2, 1903, the same year that the Wright Brothers — Wilbur and Orville — completed the world’s first successful powered aircraft flight, according to Japan’s Kyodo news agency.
British author George Orwell, Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu, and Japanese poet Misuzu Kaneko were all born in 1903.
Tanaka was born barely a year before the commencement of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, according to the article, and lived through many Japanese imperial eras — Meiji, Taisho, Showa, Heisei, and Reiwa.
She was named the world’s oldest person by Guinness World Records in March 2019 at the age of 116. Tanaka also broke the record for the oldest person in Japan when he became 117 years and 261 days old in September 2020. Tanaka was the second-oldest confirmed person in the world, in addition to being the oldest verified Japanese person ever.
Tanaka, the eighth of nine siblings, married at 19 and later maintained a noodle store while her husband Hideo and their eldest son fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. After the war, the couple opened a rice cake shop.
Tanaka attributes her long life to “consuming great stuff,” such as soda and chocolate, and “learning” new things. She was also a calligrapher who enjoyed solving mathematical puzzles.
She spent her senior years in a Fukuoka nursing home, where she loved activities such as playing the board game Reversi.
With Tanaka’s passing, the world’s oldest person is now Lucile Randon, a Frenchwoman who is 118 years and 73 days old, according to the Gerontology Research Group, which keeps track of super-centenarians throughout the world.
Fusa Tatsumi, a 115-year-old woman from Osaka prefecture, is currently Japan’s oldest individual, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
