![The World's Oldest Person Celebrated Ahead Of Turning 117 Misao Okawa, the world's oldest Japanese woman poses for a photo with her great-grandchild Himaki and grandchild Takako Okawa on her 117th birthday celebration at Kurenai Nursing Home on March 4, 2015 in Osaka, Japan.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/misao-okawa.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
Misao Okawa, the world’s oldest person, celebrated her birthday with family at her Osaka, Japan, nursing home on Wednesday, a day before she officially turns 117. In the past, when asked to share her secret to long life, she has cited sushi and getting a good night’s sleep. This year, she simply said, “I wonder about that too.”
Here are other secrets to longevity that centenarians and super-centenarians have revealed in recent years:
• “Believe in the Lord,” the third-oldest American Susannah Mushatt Jones, 115, shared with TIME during a visit to her Brooklyn home.
• Pork, the second-oldest American, Jeralean Talley, 115, told TIME in 2013. Her signature dish is hog’s head cheese (pigs’ ears and feet in a jelly stock)
• “Kindness,” the oldest American, Gertrude Weaver of Camden, Arkansas, revealed to TIME shortly after her 116th birthday.
• At 111 years old, Bernando LaPallo of Mesa, Ariz., massages his feet in olive oil.
• A Scottish 109-year-old Jessie Gallan advised “staying away from men” and eating porridge.
• Duranord Veillard, a 108-year-old from Spring Valley, N.Y., who has been married to his wife Jeanne for 82 years, gets up at 5:00 a.m. every day and does five to seven push-ups.
• Alexander Imich of New York City, formerly known as the world’s oldest man, said he didn’t drink alcohol.
• On his 115th birthday, the former oldest man in Japan, Jiroemon Kimura, attributed his longevity to sun-bathing.
• Eating raw eggs, said 115-year-old Emma Morano-Martinuzzi of Verbania, Italy.
• Alfred Date, a 109-year-old Australian man, said knitting, is “a good way of getting along in life.” Recently, he knitted sweaters for injured penguins.
• During her 107th birthday celebrations, Downing Jett Kay of Baltimore said drinking lots of coffee was a big part of her long life.
• Richard Overton, who has been called the oldest living veteran, adds whiskey to his morning coffee and smokes up to 12 cigars a day, he claimed around his 107th birthday.
• When Adelina Domingues of San Diego was 114, she told U-T San Diego, “I’ve never been to a beauty shop and I’ve never been vain.”
Read next: The New Age of Much Older Age
These Are The Oldest Living People in the World
![World's Oldest Japanese Woman Turns 116 World's Oldest Japanese Woman Turns 116](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/misao-okawa.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Gertrude Weaver Gertrude Weaver](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gertrude-weaver.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Oldest American Oldest American](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/jeralean-talley.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/susannah-mushatt-jones.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Woman Celebrates 110th Birthday Bernice Madigan, on the cusp of her 110th birthday, is one of just 25 or so known supercentenarians in the world. She lives in Cheshire, Mass. with her niece, Elaine Daniels, who is throwing her a huge birthday celebration with hundreds of invitees on Saturday, July 25, 2009.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bernice-madigan.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Emma Morano-Martinuzzi was born on Nov. 29, 1899 and is 114 years old.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/6-emma-morano-martinuzzi.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Antonia Gerena Rivera May 19, 1900 and is 114 years old.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/7-antonia-rivera113.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![9/20/1987, SEP 21 1987; Bear Creek Nursing Home; Ethel Lang 107 years old celebrating her birthday a Ethel Lang celebrates her 107th birthday with her great great grandchildren on Sept. 21 1987 in the Bear Creek Nursing Home. Lang was born on May 27, 1900.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/8-ethel-lang1.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/nabi-tajima.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![met_01SuperCentenarian_120210 Born September 8, 1900, Blanch Arrington Cobb celebrated her 110th birthday in 2010. She lives with her daughter on the Northside in Jacksonville, FL.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/blanche-cobb.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![MN Daily Life Anna Stoehr blew out the 112 candles on her birthday cake with the help of her great grandchildren on Oct. 14, 2012 in Millville, Minn., where about 180 invited guests celebrated Stoehr's birthday. Stoehr is believed to be the oldest independently living person in the world.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/11-anna-stoehr.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Goldie Steinberg was born on Oct. 30, 1900, and is 113 years old.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/12-goldie-steinberg.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![elderly woman Merle Barwis, 111 years old enjoys a birthday beer with family in Victoria, B.C. December 23, 2011.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/merle-barwis.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
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Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com