World's oldest person dies in Japan at 119

Tokyo: A Japanese woman certified the world's oldest person has died at the age of 119, local officials said Monday. 

Kane Tanaka was born January 2, 1903, in the southwestern Fukuoka region of Japan, the same year the Wright brothers flew for the first time and Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

Tanaka was in relatively good health until recently and lived at a nursing home, where she enjoyed board games, solving math problems, soda and chocolate.

Kane Tanaka, officially world's oldest woman continued to break her own world record for the ancient person when attending the 119th birthday celebration at a nursing home—expressing hope to live to 120 years old.  

The Japanese woman was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest person in March 2019, and also set the record for the longest living person of all time in Japan.

The number of Japanese people aged 100 and over was only 153 in 1963

Tanaka was born on January 2, 1903, the same year when the Wright Brothers invented world’s first-ever airplane and almost 11 years before World War I. 

She was seventh child in a family of nine siblings.  

She currently lives in a nursing home in Fukuoka, where she likes to spend her time solving puzzles, according to reports.

Although the centenarian is unable to speak anymore, she communicates with staff using gestures.

She married Hideo Tanaka in 1922 and has mothered five children. Her husband and eldest son fought in the Second Sino-Japanese war.

As of 2020, she has five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Japan has the world's most elderly population, according to World Bank data, with around 28% aged 65 or over.

The oldest-ever living person verified by Guinness was Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment, who died aged at 122 years and 164 days in 1997.