Japan’s centenarian population hits new record of over 99,000

Tokyo: The number of Japan’s centenarians rose for the 55th straight year to a record 99,763, an increase of 4,644 from the previous year, government data showed Friday.

There are an average of 80.58 centenarians per 100,000 people in the country, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, which released the data ahead of Respect for the Aged Day holiday, which falls on September 15, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Women accounted for about 88 per cent of those aged 100 or older, at 87,784, while the number of male centenarians stood at 11,979, according to the ministry.

The prefecture with the highest ratio of centenarians per 100,000 residents was Shimane in western Japan at 168.69, ranking first for the 13th consecutive year.

The average life expectancy of Japanese people was 87.13 for women and 81.09 for men in 2024.

The Japanese government started the centenarian survey in 1963, when the number stood at 153. The figure surpassed 1,000 in 1981 and 10,000 in 1998.

Earlier in April, government data showed that Japan’s population, including non-Japanese residents, fell by 595,000, or 0.48 per cent, from a year earlier to 124,352,000 as of Oct. 1, 2023, down for the 13th consecutive year.

The population of Japanese nationals dropped by 837,000, or 0.69 per cent, to 121,193,000, marking the steepest fall since comparable data became available in 1950, according to a demographic survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

The number of people aged 75 or above rose 713,000 to about 20.08 million, topping the 20 million mark for the first time, while those aged from zero to 14 fell 329,000 to about 14.17 million, or 11.4 per cent of the total population, the lowest ever, the data showed.

Meanwhile, the foreign national population gained by 243,000 to about 3.16 million. Foreign workers and students who had been in Japan for three months or longer were counted in the overall population figure, according to the ministry.

Among the country’s 47 prefectures, only Tokyo saw a rise in population, the second straight year of increase for the Japanese capital.

IANS