On January 2, 2022, the Japanese Kane Tanaka blows out 119 candles who, according to the authoritative testimony of the Guinness World Records, is the longest-lived woman in the world still alive, the current Dean of Humanity.
Ms. Kane survived three epidemics – the Spanish (1918-1920), the sars (2004) and (so far) Covid 19 – two World Wars, the effects of the Nagasaki atomic bomb and even a tumor at the age of 103 .
After the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to the pandemic, in November of the same year she was reconfirmed the role of torchbearer for the following 11 May. Unfortunately, the relay was not performed due to a technical difficulty.
Today the elderly lady resides in a nursing home in Higashi-ku, Fukuoka prefecture, she is still in good health and spends her time playing Othello and taking short walks in the corridors of the facility. I have no choice but to work hard, I’ll do my best! », he said in an interview with a Japanese TV. His hobbies include calligraphy and calculus. He feeds on rice, fish and soup, as well as drinking plenty of water, a diet he has followed since he was around 112 years old.
He still has a strong appetite, loves sweets, and drinks three cans a day of canned coffee, nutritional drinks, and sodas. Family – she never tires of repeating – means everything to her, and sleeping soundly is her secret of longevity. At the age of 103, Tanaka was diagnosed with colon cancer, but thanks to a timely surgery in Tokyo she survived.
In 2010, when she was 107, her son wrote In Good and Bad Times, 107 Years Old, a book about her that talks about her life and longevity. To tell the story of Mrs. Tanaka is the Giustitalia Association (www.associazionegiustitalia.it) which deals on a national and international scale, the protection of elderly people and of which the woman has been an honorary member for three years and which, on this occasion he wishes her “to blow out 120 candles, next year, in a world free from the pandemic”.