World’s Oldest Living Person Dies Last Week At 119

Last week, Kane Tanaka, the world’s oldest living person, died in a Japanese hospital. She was born on February 2, 1903, and her life spanned the entire twentieth century and beyond. Until recently, she was in pretty good health and lived in a care home, where she enjoyed board games, math problems, soda, and chocolate.

When she was named the oldest person alive in 2019 by Guinness World Records, she was asked when she was the happiest in her life. “now,” she says. Tanaka was the world’s second-oldest person to ever live. Jeanne Celment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, is the oldest person on record.