Kane Tanaka, has been recognized as the oldest living person in Japan as the country marks a public holiday devoted to its senior citizens.
Tanaka, a 117-year-old woman with a weakness for fizzy drinks and chocolate, had already been recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest living person in March last year, achieved the all-time Japanese age record on Saturday, when she became 117 years and 261 days old, according to The Guardian.
The super centenarian, who lives in a nursing home in the south-western city of Fukuoka, beat the previous record, held by another Japanese woman, Nabi Tajima, who died in April 2018 aged 117 years and 260 days.
Tanaka celebrated the achievement with a bottle of Coke – her favorite drink – and wore a T-shirt with her face printed on it that had been given to her by members of her family.
Her grandson, 60-year-old Eiji Tanaka, told the Kyodo news agency that his grandmother was in good health and "enjoying her life every day," despite restrictions on family visits due to the coronavirus pandemic. "As a family, we are happy and proud of the new record," he said.
Tanaka is not alone in living past 100. New government figures released ahead of Respect for the Aged Day on Monday showed that the number of Japanese aged 65 and over stood at a record-high of 36.17 million, including 80,450 who are aged at least 100.
The health ministry said last week women account for more than 88 percent of the total of the number of centenarians in Japan.
The over-60s now account for 28.7 percent of Japan's population – the highest proportion of any country – according to the internal affairs ministry.
The seventh of nine children, Tanaka was born on 2 January 1903, the year the Wright brothers made their first powered flight and the first Tour de France was held. She has lived through the reigns of five Japanese emperors. Tanaka, who has not been able to meet relatives due to the coronavirus, has reportedly been passing the time playing a board game with other residents.
She is now the third-oldest person ever, behind Jeanne Calment, a Frenchwoman who died in 1997 at the age of 122, and American Sarah Knauss, who died in 1999 at age 119, according to the US-based Gerontology Research Group.
