World's Oldest Person Has Another Birthday

Kane Tanaka is 117 and would like to see 120
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 6, 2020 4:39 AM CST
World's Oldest Person Has Another Birthday
In this Monday, April 1, 2019, photo, Kane Tanaka, who is honored as the world's oldest living person by Guinness World Records at 116, poses with chocolates with the names of Japan's eras at a nursing home in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan. ."   (Ryosuke Uematsu/Kyodo News via AP)

After she was born prematurely in 1903, Kane Tanaka was lucky to survive to her first birthday. But she made it to that milestone—and many, many more. Tanaka, believed to be the world's oldest person, turned 117 on Jan. 2. She celebrated Sunday with cake and a party at the nursing home where she now resides in Fukuoka, Japan, reports Reuters. Tanaka, who was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records last year as the oldest person alive, married Hideo Tanaka in 1922. They had four children together and adopted a fifth. Tanaka, whose husband and eldest son were killed in World War II, has said she would like to live to be at least 120. (She enjoys the board game Othello and studying mathematics.)

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