Guinness honours Japanese woman as world’s oldest person at 116

Kane Tanaka, a 116-year-old Japanese woman, who loves playing the board game Othello, has been honoured as the world’s oldest living person by Guinness World Records, global authority on records.

Guinness World Records recognised her in a ceremony at the nursing home where she lives in Fukuoka, in Japan’s southwest, with her family and the mayor present to celebrate her, according to U.S. Today.

Tanaka was born January 2, 1903, as the seventh among eight children, and married Hideo Tanaka in 1922, with four children and adopted another child from the union.

At 116, Tanaka reportedly wakes up by 6 am daily and enjoys studying mathematics.

Japanese people tend to exhibit longevity and dominate super-centenarian lists, as the previous oldest living person was another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, who died in July 2018 at the age of 117.

The oldest person prior to Miyako was also Japanese in a nation with a culinary tradition that focuses on fish, rice, vegetables and other foods low in fat.

Tanaka is a few years off being oldest person ever, an achievement of a French woman, Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived to 122 years, according to Guinness World Records.

(NAN)