Japan has set a new record for human longevity with more than 95,000 people aged 100 or older — nearly 90 percent of them women — according to government data released Tuesday.
The figures highlight the slow demographic crisis hitting the world’s fourth-largest economy as its population ages and shrinks.
At 1er As of September, Japan had 95,119 centenarians — 2,980 more than a year ago — including 83,958 women and 11,161 men, the health ministry said in a statement.
Separate data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Sunday showed that the number of people aged 65 or older had reached a record 36.25 million Japanese, or 29.3 percent of the country’s population.
With such a percentage, Japan tops a list of 200 countries and regions with a population of more than 100,000 people, the ministry said.
After the previous longevity record holder Maria Branyas Morera died last month at the age of 117, a Japanese woman is now the world’s oldest living person.
Tomiko Itooka, born on May 23, 1908 and aged 116, has taken over as the new oldest person in the world, according to the American organization Gerontology Research Group.
Mme Itooka lives in a nursing home in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, the Japanese health ministry said.
In Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan, Kiyotaka Mizuno — 110 years old — told local media he “has absolutely no idea about the secret” of his long life.
Mr. Mizuno, who lives in Iwata City with his family, gets up every morning at 6:30 a.m. and eats three meals a day without fussing.
The sports enthusiast spends his free time watching live sports broadcasts, including sumo wrestling, according to information from the Ministry of Health.
In 2023, Japan’s population will decrease by 595,000 people compared to 2022, reaching 124 million, according to new figures released Sunday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The demographic crisis has important implications: the increase in the number of elderly people leads to an increase in medical and social costs as well as a decrease in the workforce that pays contributions.
The government has tried to slow the decline and aging of its population without much success, by gradually raising the retirement age, with 65 becoming the rule for all employers from the 2025 fiscal year.