Centenarians
World’s oldest person dies in Japan aged 119
Azaleas in full bloom attract visitors at Nezu Shrine Azaleas Garden in Tokyo, Japan, 22 April 2022. About 3,000 flower trees have attracted visitors for almost one month from the beginning of April this year. Highest temperature in central Tokyo rose to 26.2 Centigrade degrees, 5.7 degrees higher than usual, almost same as mid-June, Japan Meteorological Agency said on 22 April 2022. EPA-EFE/KIMIMASA MAYAMA
TOKYO, April 25 (Reuters) - A Japanese woman believed to have been the world's oldest person has died aged 119, public broadcaster NHK said on Monday, reporting the death of Kane Tanaka.
Born on Jan. 2, 1903 – the year of the Wright Brothers’ first controlled flight of their motor-driven airplane – Tanaka was confirmed by Guinness World Records in 2019 as the oldest living person.
She died of old age at a hospital in Fukuoka city, western Japan, on April 19, NHK said. During her life, she had been partial to chocolate and fizzy drinks, NHK said.
Japan has a dwindling and rapidly ageing population. As of last September, the country had 86,510 centenarians, and nine out of every 10 were women.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Elaine Lies; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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