Oldest Woman in World Passes Away at 117
When it comes to achieving an extraordinary lifespan, Japan has the highest life expectancy of any major country.
Out of the 36 people worldwide who’ve lived longer than 110 years, half of them hail from the Land of the Rising Sun.
Sadly, though, there’s one less supercentenarian in the world as of April 21. Nabi Tajima, a 117-year-old woman from Japan who had earned the title of world’s oldest person, left this life.
“She passed away as if falling asleep,” her 65-year-old grandson said. “As she had been a hard worker, I want to tell her, ‘Rest well.’”
Tajima had the rare distinction of being the last living person to have existed in three separate centuries. Born August 4, 1900, she gave birth to nine children.
Those nine children, in turn, gave her a whopping 160 descendants, a staggering number by almost any standard. But though such achievements are impressive, they’re also ephemeral.
Tajima only held the title of world’s oldest person for five months. Her predecessor, Violet Brown, lived in Jamaica and was also 117-years-old.
She was also one of the few people who survived two World Wars and could recall life before industrialization took hold. She also saw the rise of the information economy.
Naturally, everyone probably has the same question when considering Tajima’s life: How in the world did she live so long?
Interestingly enough, her family didn’t credit fad diets or abundant exercise for her longevity. Rather they said that she loved “eating delicious things and sleeping well.”
Perhaps rural isolation helped as well. Tajima had lived on the island town of Kikai, which boasts only 7,000 inhabitants.
She also kept at least a fair bit of her mental acuity down the years. Though she’d been in the hospital since January, authorities had arranged a celebration for her before her passing.
Among other things, the ceremony included a performance on traditional Japanese instruments. Cameras captured Tajima’s hands swaying to the music’s beat.
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