First Published:
12:17 PM PDT, April 25, 2022
The world’s oldest person has died in Japan. Kane Tanaka was 119.
She was born Jan. 2, 1903, in the Fukuoka region, the same year that Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and Norway gave women the right to vote.
Tanaka lived in a nursing home and was in relatively good health. She loved board games, sodas, chocolate and math problems.
One hundred years ago, she married Hideo Tanaka, and also ran a noodle shop and a rice cake business. She had four children and adopted another.
In 2019, the Guinness World Records named her the oldest person in the world. Asked what was the happiest moment of her life, Tanaka replied, “Now.”
At the time, Guinness said she woke every day at 6 a.m. and spent her afternoons doing calligraphy and mathematic equations.
Seitaro Hattori, the local governor, honored the woman’s life after she died last week.
“I was looking forward to seeing Kane-san on this year’s Respect for the Aged Day (a September national holiday) and celebrating together with her favorite soda and chocolate,” he said in a statement on Monday. “I am extremely saddened by the news.”
