Kane Tanaka, World’s Oldest Person, Has Died In Japan At The Age Of 119

Kane Tanaka’s family will miss their happy-go-lucky member who brought them nothing but joy.

Japan lost the world’s oldest living individual at the age of 119. According to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, Kane Tanaka, born on January 2, 1903, died on April 19. Tanaka’s family posted on social media earlier this month that she had become ill frequently and had been in and out of the hospital. Robert Young, a senior gerontology consultant who certified Tanaka’s status as the world’s oldest person in 2019, confirmed her death. In a tweet, Guinness World Records expressed their grief over her loss.

In January 2019, she became the world’s oldest living person at the age of 116 years and 28 days. She is also the second-oldest person ever recorded, behind Jeanne Calment, who lived to be 122 years old.

Tanaka married a rice shop owner when she was 19 and worked there until she was 103. She lived through two world wars, the Spanish Flu in 1918, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, among other historical events. Tanaka, the sixth of nine siblings, had already beaten cancer twice.

Junko, her great-granddaughter, started a Twitter account in January 2020 to commemorate the supercentenarian. 

She shared several photos of Tanaka eating cake and drinking Coca-Cola. Earlier, Junko had said, “I might be biased because I’m related to her, but I think it’s kind of cool – I wanted to share it with the world and I wanted to share her delight with people.”

As a result of Coronavirus restrictions, she was unable to celebrate her 119th birthday in person with her family in January. 

On the other hand, her loved ones did not let this deter them from wishing her a happy milestone birthday in any way they could. 62-year-old Eiji, her grandson, said, “I will personally congratulate her soon.”

As she gets older, I hope she stays healthy and has fun every day,” he said, noting that Tanaka had a life goal of turning 120, but she died before she achieved it.
CNN reports that one person in 1565 in Japan will be over 100 in 2020, with 88 percent of them being women. Official statistics published in July 2020 indicate that women have an average life expectancy of 87.45 years and men have an average life expectancy of 81.4 years. The titles of oldest living person and oldest living person (female) are being investigated, Guinness World Records said on Monday.Source: explore.newsner.com