Kane Tanaka, The Japanese Woman Whose Secret To A Long Life Was “Being Myself”
YouTubeKane Tanaka wanted to live to 120 but reportedly “died in peace” at 119.
The next verified oldest person to ever live is Kane Tanaka of Japan. She died at the age of 119 years and 107 days, about three years shy of Jeanne Calment’s world record. But even though the two women lived different lives, they ultimately embraced very similar life philosophies.
Tanaka, born in 1903, survived not only two World Wars and the 1918 influenza outbreak but also two bouts with cancer. She spent much of her life working, first by running a mochi shop and an udon noodle restaurant, then by opening a kindergarten, and finally by starting a floral shop.
She also suffered from frequent tragedy, as she outlived all of her kids.
Public DomainKane Tanaka at the age of 20, nearly a century before she died in 2022.
When she finally retired in her late 70s, The New York Times reports that Tanaka kept active. She traveled, read newspapers, and played board games (and reportedly hated to lose). Like Calment, Tanaka also enjoyed sweets, particularly chocolate, and had a fondness for fizzy sodas.
In 2019, at the age of 116, Tanaka answered a number of questions from reporters who wanted to learn more about how she’d lived so long. What was the secret to her long life? “Being myself!” she answered.
She died in 2022 after spending several months going in and out of the hospital. But even so, death never seemed to be top of Kane Tanaka’s mind. When asked about dying in 2019, Tanaka said that she simply didn’t think of it and peacefully remarked: “I don’t feel like I will die.”
