Asia Times: Land of the rising centenarians


	September 12, 2001	atimes.com

Japan

Land of the rising centenarians

TOKYO - An estimated 15,475 Japanese will be at least 100 years old as of September 30, up 2,439 from a year earlier and the 31st consecutive annual rise, says the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

The ministry's survey is a graphic illustration of the rapid graying of Japan's population. When the survey began in 1963, there were only 153 centenarians, or less than 1 percent of the current figure.

Women constitute the overwhelming majority of people who have lived a century or more, at 83.5 percent. The oldest Japanese is Kamato Hongo, a woman in Kagoshima Prefecture who will turn 114 on September 16. It is the third straight year she has held the distinction.

The southernmost prefecture of Okinawa has the most centenarians per 100,000 people for the 12th straight year, at 34.67, followed by Shimane Prefecture at 30.18 and Kochi Prefecture at 28.62, both in western Japan. The prefectural average is 12.19.

(Asia Pulse/Nikkei)