Kane Tanaka, a 116-year-old Japanese woman in the southwestern city of Fukuoka, has been recognized as the world's oldest living person, Guinness World Records said Saturday.

Tanaka was born on Jan. 2, 1903, the year the Wright brothers flew the world's first powered airplane. She received the record certificate at a nursing home where she lives the same day.

Asked what has been the happiest event in her life, Tanaka told reporters, "It's now."

Guinness had been trying to confirm the oldest living person after previous title holder Chiyo Miyako, also a Japanese, died at age 117 last July. The oldest person ever to have lived is Jeanne Calment, a French woman, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.

Tanaka was born in Fukuoka Prefecture as the seventh child among nine siblings. She married into a family of rice dealers.

According to Guinness, she normally wakes up at 6 a.m., and in the afternoon often studies subjects such as math. One of her favorite pastimes is playing the classic board game of Othello in which she often beats rest-home staff.

She has five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, according to a relative.

Japan is one of the world's top countries for longevity. Jiroemon Kimura, a Japanese who died in 2013 at 116, was recognized by Guinness as the longest-lived man in history.