A Japanese woman honored last year by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest living person turned 117 on Thursday.

Kane Tanaka observed the occasion with a party at her nursing home in the city of Fukuoka on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Reuters said she celebrated with a slice of birthday cake.

Tanaka was born prematurely in 1903, the seventh of eight children, and married in 1922.

Last March, she was certified as the oldest living person in the world by Guinness World Records. The honor was last bestowed to Chiyo Miyako, also of Japan, who died in July 2018 at age 117. The oldest person before her was also Japanese.

The oldest person to ever live was Jeanne Calment, a French woman who lived to 122 years. She died in August 1997.

Tanaka’s honor is representative of Japan's cultural deference to its older populations, as well as a diet and health care system that allow its population to age well into its 80s and beyond. It also stands as a symbol of the low birthrate in the country, according to Reuters, potentially putting the country at risk of a labor shortage.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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