Tanaka was born as Kane Ota (太田 カ子,Ōta Kane) on 2 January 1903 in the village of Wajiro (now part ofHigashi-ku,Fukuoka), on the southern island ofKyushu,[7] the third daughter and seventh child of Kumayoshi and Kuma Ota.[8][9] Kane and her family said she was actually born on 2 December 1902 and that her parents delayed the process of filing the report for a week because they were not sure if she would survive[10] as she was born prematurely.[11]
Kane's early childhood was during the last years of theMeiji period, which ended in 1912 when she was nine.[12][13] Kane married her cousin Hideo Tanaka in 1922,[14] with whom she had two sons and two daughters.[15] The couple also adopted their niece, the second daughter of Hideo's sister.[16][8] Kane's eldest daughter died shortly after birth and her second daughter died at the age of one in 1947, while her adoptive daughter died in 1945 at the age of 23 of an unspecified illness.[9][12][17] The couple worked in a store sellingshiruko andudon noodles.[18][19]
Kane's husband was later drafted into the military, where he served from 1937 to 1939; one of her sons was captured towards the end ofWorld War II as a militaryPOW and was held captive inSiberia before being released and returning home in 1947.[17] After World War II, the couple continued working in the store, with Kane converting to Christianity under the ministry of pastors stationed by theUnited States military.[9][20] Retiring from working at their store at 63, Kane traveled to the United States in the 1970s to visit her relatives inCalifornia andColorado.[7][21] Her husband died in 1993 at the age of 90 after 71 years of marriage.[9]
Kane lived in anursing home in Higashi-ku, Fukuoka from September 2018, and was reportedly still in good health on her 118th birthday.[3][22] Tanaka was supposed to hold theOlympic torch at the2020 Summer Olympics, but she withdrew from it due to concerns regarding an increase inCOVID-19 cases in Japan.[23] She occasionally played the board gameOthello, and took short walks in the nursing home's hallways. Her hobbies includedcalligraphy and solvingarithmetic problems.[22] She had five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.[17] Tanaka died in a hospital in Fukuoka on 19 April 2022, nine days after being verified as the second-oldest person to have lived. Her death was announced on 25 April 2022.[2][24] No cause of death was given, but her grandson said she had been feeling ill since late 2021, according to theJapanese Health Ministry.[25]
Tanaka had several major illnesses and was infected withparatyphoid fever with her adopted daughter at the age of 35.[26] She underwentpancreatic cancer surgery at the age of 45.[26] In 2006, Tanaka was diagnosed withcolorectal cancer and underwent surgery when she was 103 years old.[7] Her life and longevity were noted by her second son and his wife four years later when they published a book calledIn Good and Bad Times, 107 Years Old.[9] At the age of 114, she was interviewed byKBC in September 2017.[27] On 9 March 2019, Tanaka was officially presented with the "World's Oldest Living Person" and "World's Oldest Living Woman" titles byGuinness World Records, verifying her longevity claim.[18] On 19 September 2020, she broke the record of longest-lived Japanese person, as well as the third-oldest person in the world, after surpassingNabi Tajima's age of 117 years, 260 days.[5] On 8 April 2022, she surpassed the lifespan ofSarah Knauss to become the second-oldest verified person.[28]
Tanaka had said that she wanted to live to the age of 120, crediting her faith in God, family, sleep, hope, eating good food and practicingmathematics for her longevity.[7][29] Her longevity, along with that ofJeanne Calment, has contributed to the debate that themaximum lifespan for humans could be 115–125 years.[4][30] After Tanaka's death, FrenchwomanLucile Randon became the world's oldest validated living person.[31]
^abcdKashiwagi, Toshihiro (27 July 2018).国内最高齢１１５歳、入所者励ます「頑張りんしゃい」 [At 115, the oldest man in Japan advises citizens to "try hard"].Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese).Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved10 November 2018.
^Hoda, Masashi (27 July 2018).田中カ子さん１１５歳「-死ぬ気全然せんです」 [Japan's oldest woman, Kanako Tanaka, at 115: "I do not feel like dying at all"].Mainichi Shimbun (in Japanese).Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved10 November 2018.
^Naoko Sakamoto (21 September 2020)."国内の歴代最高齢 １１７歳の田中カ子さん 記憶に焼きつく祈る姿".Christian Press (in Japanese).Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved12 November 2020.
^abHanada (2010).Honto "In Good and Bad Times, 107 Years Old". Azusa College.ISBN978-4-87035-380-0.
^"元気に長生きする秘けつ" [The secret to a healthy long life] (in Japanese).KBC. 19 September 2017. Archived fromthe original on 10 August 2018. Retrieved10 August 2018.
^Sergey Young (2021)."Breaking the "Sound Barrier" of Lifespan".The Science and Technology of Growing Young: An Insider's Guide to the Breakthroughs that Will Dramatically Extend Our Lifespan ... and What You Can Do Right Now. BenBella Books.ISBN978-1-953295-39-2.Archived from the original on 14 February 2022. Retrieved2 December 2021.
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