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Friday, 11th September 2015
In General Japan News,
Japan now has 60,000 centenarians
The number of people over 100-years-old in Japan has topped 60,000, according to official figures.
By Tuesday (September 15th), the exact tally for centenarians in the country will be 61,568, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has announced.
The news comes ahead of Respect for the Aged Day, which falls on September 21st and is designed to ensure Japan's increasingly older population is cared for.
Figures from the newly released report show there are 2,748 more centenarians in Japan than there were in 2014.
This will be the 45th year in a row that Japan has broken previous records for citizens in the nation over the age of 100.
Japan has been counting its centenarians since 1963 with an official report, when there were just 153 living in the country.
In 1998 the figure topped 10,000, in 2007 there was in excess of 30,000 and by 2012, more than 50,000 centenarians were reported.
Further analysis of this year's figures show that 87.3 per cent of those aged 100 or over in Japan are women.
When it comes to areas where more centenarians live, Shimane comes out top with 90.67 per 100,000 people in the prefecture falling into this age bracket.
This was followed by 85.37 for Kochi and 80.40 for Kagoshima, with Saitama ranked the lowest of Japan's 47 prefectures, as its centenarian population stands at 28.68 per 100,000 people.
Japan's oldest man is Yasutaro Koide, 112, who lives in Nagoya, but is also famous for being the oldest male on earth - a feat which was recognised by the Guinness World Records in August.
He is surpassed by a 115-year-old in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, who is the oldest women in Japan, but her name has not been disclosed at the request of her family.
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