The Japanese government reported that as of September, there were 99,763 people over 100 living in the country, 88% of whom were women.
This is reported by the BBC, citing data from the Japanese Ministry of Health.
Thus, in Japan there are 87,784 women and 11,979 men who have lived to be 100 years old.
The oldest person is 114-year-old Shigeko Kagawa, who lives in the suburbs of Nara. Meanwhile, the oldest man is 111-year-old Kiyotaka Mizuno from the coastal city of Iwata.
The ministry released the data ahead of Elderly People’s Day, which is celebrated in Japan on September 15. On this holiday, new centenarians receive a congratulatory letter and a silver cup from the prime minister. This year, 52,310 people will be congratulated.
Japan has the world’s longest life expectancy, and is also known for often being home to the world’s oldest person. However, this wasn’t always the case. In the 1960s, Japan had the lowest proportion of people over 100 years old of any G7 country.
When the government began keeping statistics on centenarians in 1963, there were 153. This number increased to 1,000 in 1981 and reached 10,000 by the end of the 20th century.
The BBC notes that Japan’s longer life expectancy is attributed to fewer deaths from heart disease and common forms of cancer, including breast and prostate cancer.
Also, thanks to a diet low in red meat and high in fish and vegetables, the Japanese suffer less from obesity. In addition, older Japanese tend to walk and use public transport more often than their European and American peers, the British broadcaster notes.
However, some researchers question the veracity of the data, suggesting that the numbers are inflated due to unreliable public records and a lack of birth certificates.
In 2010, a government audit of family registers in Japan confirmed the miscounting. It is suspected that some families may have deliberately concealed the deaths of elderly relatives in order to collect their pensions.
Earlier, Japan’s Health Ministry reported that the country’s birth rate had fallen to a record low , despite government efforts to stabilize the situation. Japan now has the world’s oldest population. By 2023, one in ten people in Japan will be 80 or older, the BBC reported .
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