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Japan sets a record for the number of long-livers
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Rapidly aging Japan now has more people over 100 than it has for 41 years.
According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, 37 people out of every hundred thousand live into their second century. In total, there are more than 47,700 centenarians in the country, 87% of whom are women. In 2010, the number of centenarians increased by more than 3,300 people.
The "achievement" of 114-year-old Jieromon Kimura is included in the Guinness Book of Records. The oldest Japanese woman is also 114.
Incidentally, since this year the counting of Japanese centenarians has been conducted more meticulously, since it has been discovered that the relatives of some centenarians hide their deaths, sometimes for decades, while regularly receiving old-age pensions. And yet the data is not very accurate, since it has not been revised since March 11, when the earthquake and tsunami took away many "elders".
More than 20% of Japan's 128 million residents are over 65, one of the highest proportions in the world. The country also has one of the lowest birth rates, with Japanese people often postponing family formation in favor of a career.
This year, many myths about how to live to live long were debunked. American scientists completed a study begun in 1921 by psychologist Louis Terman from Stanford University. They found that those of the 1,500 participants who had the most cheerful character and demonstrated an excellent sense of humor, on average, lived less than their more “gloomy” comrades in the experiment.
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