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Tatuto Kaneko/PA Images
guinness world record
116-year-old woman in Japan declared world's oldest person
Kane Tanaka was born on 2 January 1903.
11.27am, 9 Mar 2019
21.7k
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A 116-YEAR-OLD Japanese woman who still enjoys studying maths and playing board games has been recognised as the world’s oldest person, the Guinness World Records said today.
Kane Tanaka was born on 2 January 1903, the year when the Wright brothers launched humanity’s first powered flight, according to Guinness.
Tanaka’s recognition was celebrated at the nursing home where she lives in western Japan’s Fukuoka by city mayor Soichiro Takashima and other well-wishers.
Asked what moment she was the most happy in life, she replied: “Now.”
She married Hideo Tanaka in 1922, giving birth to four children and adopting a fifth.
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Kane normally wakes each morning at 6am and passes the afternoons by studying mathematics and practicing calligraphy.
“One of Kane’s favourite pastimes is a game of Othello and she’s become an expert at the classic board game, often beating rest-home staff,” Guinness said.
Japan has one of the world’s highest life expectancies and has been home to several people recognised as among the oldest humans to have ever lived.
They include Jiroemon Kimura, the longest-living man on record, who died soon after his 116th birthday in June 2013.
The oldest verified person ever — Jeanne Louise Calment of France — died in 1997 at the age of 122, according to Guinness.
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I bet when she was 16 she thought people in their thirties were old…. Now those in their eighties would probably be young ones. She obviously has a great enthusiasm for life. Fair play to her, I hope she breaks the record.
@Damien Barton: You prob do not know the amount of the state pension in Japan is about €450 a month, less than a half compared to what Irish pensioners receive.
Jeanne Louise Calment was being interviewed on her 121st birthday and was asked about her still drinking wine and smoking she replied “When I was 114 the doctor tells me “Jeanne Louise you must give up smoking and drinking” I told him “I’m to old to be that f***ing miserable”"
@Jaycee Laycee: maybe science will continue to maximise human longevity, but global warming will lead to more sudden deaths through severe weather events. I don’t think climate change is contributing to increasing lifespans, do you?
@Jaycee Laycee: funny that, because in the US, one of the highest per capita sources of greenhouse emissions, life expectancy has started to fall. As was mentioned by another commenter, the two statistics are entirely unrelated.
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