Tokyo: A 119-year-old woman of Japan believed to have been the world’s oldest person has died on Monday.
Born on Jan. 2, 1903 – the year of the Wright Brothers’ first controlled flight of their motor-driven aeroplane – 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.