Japan’s oldest woman is 113 and lives on the southern island of Okinawa; while the oldest man is Tomoji Tanabe who celebrates his 113th birthday last week.
According to 2007 statistics, Okinawa has the largest proportion of centenarians (by prefecture) with 57.89 per 100,000 people, followed by Kochi, Shimane, Kumamoto and Ehime prefectures. Okinawa has been maintaining the top position for the 35th consecutive year (could be 36th in 2008).
Saitama Prefecture has the lowest proportion with 13.05 per 100,000 people, staying last for the 18th year in a row, followed by Aichi, Chiba, Aomori and Kanagawa prefectures.
Btw, Japanese might be the longest living people in the world on average, but they don’t have the largest population of centenarians… the title belongs to USA instead.
US reported a number of 50,454 centenarians in 2001 and the stat is expected to rise continuously. The current world’s oldest living person is from USA as well… she is Edna Parker from the State of Indiana; she is 115.
[With reference from BBC, Japantimes and Wiki]
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Early this month was my grandmother’s 99th birthday. She’s already bedridden and doesn’t recognize things so much, but I’m still proud to see her live this long.
joseph, happy belated birthday to your grandmother.
I have a bit of thought about this old age issue… my grandma passed away in her 90s, and her last few years were bed-ridden and couldn’t recognised most if not all of the things. It took a lot of effort to take care of her, but I’m not complaining much… I love my grandma afterall.
However, the experience gave me the thought that I would rather die sooner if I am not able to stay reasonably healthy and consciousness when I’m old… not being too pessimistic, but the idea is deep in my mind… I just don’t want my family to go through the hassles when the time comes.
Off course, the ideal situation is that I can stay healthy and thoughtful when I’m old, but we can’t really tell until we reach there.