The world’s oldest person, Japanese woman Kane Tanaka passed away at age 119, just months short of her goal of reaching 120.

Tanaka died of old age on April 19 at a hospital in Fukuoka, her hometown in southern Japan where she spent all her life, city officials said on Tuesday. Tanaka, lived at a nursing home, and was in and out of hospital only recently.

Fukuoka Gov. Seitaro Hattori said in a statement he was shocked and saddened by her loss as he was looking forward to marking the Respect for the Aged Day later this year in person over chocolate and fizzy drinks, as he had to miss the occasion last year due to the pandemic.

With her death, the world’s oldest person is now Lucile Randon, a French nun known as Sister Andre, aged 118, according to the Gerontology Research Group. In Japan, the new record-holder is a 115-year-old woman Fusa Tatsumi, of Osaka, the Japanese health ministry announced.

Japan, whose population is rapidly aging and declining, has 86,510 centenarians, 90% of them women, according to the latest ministry figures.
-AP