KANE TANAKA, WORLD’S OLDEST LIVING PERSON CELEBRATES 118TH BIRTHDAY

Sat 02 January 2021:

Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living person, turned 118 on Saturday, according to local media.

Tanaka, born on Jan. 2, 1903, celebrated her 118th birthday at a care facility in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, where she lives, NHK News reported.

She celebrated her birthday, clapping her hands, and said she plans to stay healthy until the age of 120, the report noted.

World’s oldest living person Kane Tanaka celebrated her 117th birthday in Fukuoka, southern Japan on Sunday (5/1/2020). pic.twitter.com/fkpXHxq3Li

— ANews (@ANews) January 7, 2020

Meet Kane Tanaka – at 116 she’s been named the world’s oldest person.

She found the news a little overwhelming as it’s been a dream since she was 100.

For more videos like this, visit: https://t.co/hhDQuPJRZP pic.twitter.com/FjHIubg6QE

— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 11, 2019

The supercentenarian, who lives in a nursing home in the south-western city of Fukuoka, beat the previous record, held by another Japanese woman, Nabi Tajima, who died in April 2018 aged 117 years and 260 days.

The seventh of nine children, Tanaka was born on 2 January 1903, the year the Wright brothers made their first powered flight and the first Tour de France was held. She has lived through the reigns of five Japanese emperors.

Tanaka is in good health, eats three times a day, and does exercise, while she has “almost no chance” to meet her relatives due to measures against COVID-19, it added.

She is now the third-oldest person ever, behind Jeanne Calment, a Frenchwoman who died in 1997 at the age of 122, and American Sarah Knauss, who died in 1999 at age 119, according to the US-based Gerontology Research Group.