Her life spanned almost the entirety of the 20th century

Kane Tanaka, the woman credited as being the world's oldest person, has died at the age of 119. According to Japan's public broadcaster NHK, Tanaka passed away in hospital in Fukuoka, western Japan, last week. She was confirmed as the oldest living person in the world by the Guinness World Records in 2019. Tanaka was also the second oldest person ever to have lived, behind only the French woman Jeanne Celment, who died at 122 in 1997. Born on January 2 1903, Tanaka lived through almost the entirety of the 20th century. She witnessed Japan's participation in wars with Russia and China and, of course, World War Two. Tanaka was in her forties when the US dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. During her lifetime, her country went from empirical power to global outcast after World War Two, before becoming a major global economic power and leader again by the end of the 20th century. According to NHK, her favourite food items were chocolate and fizzy drinks, and she enjoyed spending her days playing board games and solving maths problems. She had five children and was married to her husband for 71 years, before he passed away at the age of 90 in 1993. Tanaka managed to maintain full independence well into her later life, only moving into a retirement in 2018. The title of oldest living person in the world now passes on to French-born Lucile Randon, who is 118 years and 73 days old.