The doyenne of humanity, a Japanese woman, died at 119 years
Steph Deschamps / April 25, 2022
A Japanese woman who was officially recognized as the current dean of humanity died on April 19 at the age of 119, local authorities announced Monday.
Kane Tanaka was born on January 2, 1903 in Fukuoka Prefecture (southwestern Japan). That year, the Wright brothers made the first powered flight and Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
She was relatively healthy until recently and lived in a nursing home in her home county, where she enjoyed board games, solving math problems, soda and chocolate.
As a young woman, Mrs. Tanaka ran several businesses, including a noodle store and a rice cake store. She married in 1922, giving birth to four children and adopting a fifth.
She had planned to participate in the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Torch Relay in a wheelchair, but had given up because of the pandemic.
When the Guinness Book of World Records named him the world's oldest living person in 2019, he was asked what the happiest moment in his life was. His answer: Now.
His daily routine was described at the time as including waking up at 06:00 in the morning, and afternoons devoted to the study of mathematics and the practice of calligraphy.
One of her favorite pastimes is the game Othello, she has become an expert in this classic board game and often manages to beat the house staff, wrote Guinness in 2019.
Japan has the world's oldest population and about 86,500 of its residents are centenarians, according to the latest estimate from the Ministry of Health in September 2021.
The oldest person who ever lived and whose date of birth was attested was the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122.