World's oldest person turns 116, credits longevity to sashimi

Misao Okawa, a Japanese woman believed to be the world’s oldest person, celebrated turning 116 by tucking into a white cake decorated with strawberries and candles.

Misao Okawa was born in 1898, the year that the US annexed the Hawaiian islands, a new drink named Pepsi-Cola was launched and the USS Maine exploded in Havana harbour.

Accepting bouquets from well-wishers at a small party in the nursing home where she lives in the western city of Osaka, Okawa sat by her birthday cake, decorated with “116” in candles, and later pronounced it as “delicious.”

She wore a pink kimono patterned with cherry blossoms and a blue cardigan for the event. Asked if she was happy to have lived so long, she replied, according to the Asahi Shimbun daily: “Kind of.”