The worldʼs oldest person has died in Japan

Kane Tanaka, the oldest person in the world, died in Japan at the age of 119. The woman died on April 19, but local authorities announced this only on April 25, writes The Japan Times.

Until recently, the woman was in relatively good health and lived in a nursing home, where she played board games, solved math problems, and loved chocolate and Coca-Cola.

Kane Tanaka was born in 1903, the year the Wright brothers made the first manned flight in history and the first Tour de France. Tanaka married when she was 19 and helped run the family restaurant while her husband and eldest son fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937. In total, the couple had four children of their own and one adopted.

The Guinness Book of Records recognized Caneʼs status in March 2019, when she was 116 years old. In 2020, Kane Tanaka became the oldest person in Japan (aged 117 years and 261 days) and celebrated it with a bottle of Coca-Cola — her favorite drink. In 2021, when the Olympic Games took place, the woman was instructed to carry the Olympic flame.

• The oldest living person confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records was Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Kalman, who died at the age of 122 years and 164 days in 1997.
• In August 2020, in Ecuador, 110-year-old Julio Mora and 104-year-old Valdramina Quinteros became the oldest married couple in the world. In October of that year, the man died.