Japan's centenarians increase to new record of over 99,000, up 4,600

The number of those aged 100 or above is estimated to increase by 4,644 from a year earlier as of Sept. 15, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which released the data ahead of Monday's Respect for the Aged Day holiday.

Women accounted for about 88 percent of the total, at 87,784, while the number of male centenarians stood at 11,979.

The oldest person was Shigeko Kagawa, a 114-year-old woman in Yamatokoriyama, Nara Prefecture. The oldest man in the country was Kiyotaka Mizuno, 111, in Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture.

There were an average 80.58 centenarians per 100,000 people in the country. By prefecture, Shimane in western Japan led others for the 13th straight year, with 168.69 per 100,000 residents.

The 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.

The average life expectancy of Japanese people was 87.13 for women and 81.09 for men in 2024, according to the ministry.

As reported earlier, Okagi Hayashi, a 115-year-old woman in central Japan recognized as the country's oldest person, died at the close of April from heart failure.