The number of people aged 100 or older in Japan was estimated at a record 95,119 in September, marking an increase for the 54th year in a row, Kyodo News reports citing the health ministry.
The total number of centenarians as of Sept. 15 was up 2,980 from a year earlier, with females accounting for 88.3 percent at 83,958, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said one day after the Respect for the Aged Day national holiday.
Japan boasts one of the most rapidly aging populations in the world and also the world's oldest person as in August 116-year-old Tomiko Itooka was recognized as such in the book of Guinness World Records. The resident of Hyogo Prefecture was born on May 23, 1908.
Male centenarians totaled 11,161, with the oldest man being 110-year-old Kiyotaka Mizuno. Mizuno, a resident of Shizuoka Prefecture, was born on March 14, 1914.
The average number of centenarians per 100,000 people in Japan stood at 76.49.
The ministry said that the average life expectancy in the country rose to 87.14 for women and 81.09 for men in 2023, rising for the first time in three years apparently due to the waning impact of COVID-19.
The number of centenarians in Japan stood at 153 in 1963, when data were first collected. The figure surpassed 1,000 in 1981 and topped the 10,000 mark in 1998, in part due to medical advances.
"We will strive to enhance social welfare services including medical and nursing care so that the elderly can continue to live comfortably in their own community," a health ministry spokesperson said.
