Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman considered to be the world’s oldest person has died aged 119, public broadcaster NHK said on Monday. Born on Jan. 2, 1903, Tanaka was confirmed by Guinness World Records in 2019 as the oldest living person.
The world’s oldest person died on April 19th at the age of 119 at a hospital in Fukuoka city, western Japan, on April 19, NHK said. During her life, she had been partial to chocolate and fizzy drinks, NHK said.
Tweeting about Kane Tanaka’s death, Guinness World Records said, “She became the oldest living person in January 2019 at the age of 116 years and 28 days.
“She is also the second oldest person ever recorded, behind only Jeanne Calment who lived to the age of 122.”
Tanaka’s family said in a tweet earlier this month that she had been frequently sick recently and “in and out of hospital.”
Tanaka was married to a rice shop owner at the age of 19, and worked in the family store until she was 103. In her long lifetime, Tanaka twice survived cancer and lived through a multitude of historical events, surviving two world wars and the 1918 Spanish flu — as well as the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apart from being the oldest verified Japanese person ever, Tanaka was also the second oldest verified person ever in the world.
She spent her later years in a Fukuoka nursing home, where she enjoyed playing the board game Reversi, among other activities.
With Tanaka’s death, the world’s oldest person now is Lucile Randon, a French woman who is 118 years and 73 days, according to the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks super-centenarians globally.
Japan’s oldest person is now Fusa Tatsumi, a 115-year-old woman living in Osaka prefecture, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said.
