The number of people aged 100 years or more in Japan surpassed 100,000 for the first time, according to newly released government figures.
Japan’s Health and Welfare Ministry statistics released Tuesday confirmed the milestone, showing that Japan now has 107,677 centenarians, up 7,914 from the previous year.
Of the people over 100, 13,379 are male and 94,298 are female, meaning women made up about 88 per cent of the total.
The figures were released on Sept. 15, known in Japan as Respect the Aged Day, when centenarians are honoured by the government with a letter from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and a silver sake cup.
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The number of centenarians nationwide has grown steadily since the early 1960s. There were 153 centenarians in 1963, when the Elderly Welfare Act was ratified; the number surpassed 1,000 in 1981 and reached 10,000 in 1998, exceeding 50,000 in 2012.
“I’m very pleased that many people are living a long, healthy and active lives,” Health Minister Kenichiro Ueno told reporters Tuesday, the Associated Press reported, citing developments in medical technology, access to regular high-quality health care, healthy lifestyle and diet as contributing factors, before noting the importance of maintaining robust social safety nets as the population ages and declines.
Stuart Gietel-Basten, a professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, told the New York Times that women are overrepresented in the category because many men of that generation were killed in World War II, and that survivors often drank and smoked. Men are also more likely to take industrial jobs, which could lead to long-term health issues.
Women, by contrast, tend to be more involved in their communities, which improves mental health, while men often experience isolation after the death of a spouse, he explained.
Its aging population combined with a slowing fertility rate means a drop in Japan’s population is inevitable, experts told the AP, noting that the country’s fertility rate dropped to a record low of 1.14 in 2025, which is far below the 2.1 children threshold needed to maintain the current population.
Japan’s total population during the 2020 census was 126 million, almost 30 per cent of whom were 65 or older.
Experts estimate there will be a decline to 87 million by 2070 with nearly 40 per cent aged 65 or older, according to the national institute.
Young Japanese people are also reluctant to marry, recent data suggests.
Last week, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research released the results of a survey which found that more than 20 per cent of single men and women in Japan aged between 18 and 34 do not intend to marry, with nearly half saying they see no benefit to the institution.
Ueno acknowledged that the reasons for marriage reluctance among young people included the high costs of raising and educating children and the mental and physical toll it takes on working parents, the AP noted.
Kyoto resident Fuyo Kishimoto is the oldest woman in Japan, at age 114. Japan’s oldest man, Hikaru Kato, is 112-years-old.
— With files from the Associated Press.
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