Tokyo, Sep 15 ,2020: For first time in rapidly aging Japan, the number of citizen’s aged 100 or above has surpassed 80,000 showed government data on Tuesday.
The number of centenarians rose for the 50th consecutive year, latest data showed that 9,176 more people over the age of 100 years were added to the population over the past one year taking their overall population to 80,450.
Data released by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry showed that women account for 88.2 percent of the total centenarian population.
Centenarians marked the largest annual increase this year, as the number of men rose 1,011 from last year’s count to reach a total of 9,475 and number of women rose by 8,165 to reach a total of 70,975 showed the report.
Japan also observes a ‘Respect for the Aged Day holiday’ as a mark of respect for the elderly, which would be observed on September 21.
When The annual survey of centenarians was started in 1963, when the number of centenarians stood at 153, the number reached 1,000 in 1981 and surpassed 10,000 in 1998, mainly due to advances in medical technology.
117-year-old Kane Tanaka, a resident of Fukuoka has been recognised as the oldest living person in the world by Guinness World Records.
Prefecture wise Shimane has the highest number of centenarians per 100,000 persona for the eighth straight year at 127.60, it is followed by Kochi and Tottori at 119.77 and 109.89, respectively.
A Kyodo news report said that Japan’s average life expectancy stood at 87.45 for women and 81.41 for men in 2019, both record highs, according to health ministry data released in July this year.
