The number of Japanese people hitting the landmark age of 100 has reached record levels… there are now 36,276 centenarians in the country according to a recent report by the Japanese government.
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]
Bahnar Rong (Ba Na Rông) are communal houses of the Bahnar tribe from Central Highlands (Tây Nguyên) region of Vietnam.
The distinctive features of the traditional Bahnar Rong are the tall & steep roof and lifted platform which are built to adapt to the (often rainy) tropical weather; the houses are traditionally used for cultural, religion and gathering purposes for men.
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Photo of Japanese Geisha posing in swimsuits (or bath-suits) during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) or Taisho Era (1912-1926) of old Japan…
More pictures available on Flickr [via Japanprobe]
Tomoji Tanabe, the world’s oldest man, celebrates his 113th birthday yesterday (Sept 19) at his home in Miyakonojō, about 900 km southwest of Tokyo, Japan.
Tanabe congratulated by local mayor on his 113th birthday (Image from
BBC)
Tanabe attributes his longevity to a healthy lifestyle. He doesn’t smoke; he drinks a cup of milk everyday, eats lots of vegetables and avoid fatty food. Tanabe also read often and writes a diary.
Happy Birthday!
The Beijing Paralympic Games has started and ended rather quietly compared to the Beijing Olympic Games. Didn’t manage to catch anything live… as said earlier, the media coverage was really poor for this event, which was a pity because I am sure there were lots of wonderful moments throughout the Paralympics…
A referee helping a soccer player with his shoestrings (Image from
Xinhuanet)
I have been following the Chinese news on the event, and it seems like the Paralympic Games have been very well ran as well… kudos to the Chinese organisers for that. Hope that it will be another great event in London 2012, and hope that the international media will give more attention next time.
Todd from Taiwan took this photo at the Dengshan Trail in Jhongsing Village. Got to be the cutest bug that I’ve ever seen, bizarrely reminded me of a milk-cow…
The Sanlu brand’s contaminated milk formula has caused four infants’ deaths in China and the number of infants diagnosed with kidney stones or other problems after consuming the Sanlu milk has hit 6200 mark, with 158 of them suffering acute kidney failure. (Last updated September 19, 2008)
Chinese authorities have arrested 19 people since the scandal was exposed last week. Two brothers who run a milk collection centre in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, have admitted that they added melamine into the milk they supplied to Sanlu.
The brothers began mixing their milk with melamine in late 2007 to pass Sanlu’s quality test after their supplies were rejected a few times by the company and resulted in huge losses. Melamine is a chemical which is often used in plastic industry; reports suggested that it could make the milk appeared rich in protein.
Sanlu might escaped the blame for causing the contamination, but the public is questioning their slow response. New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative Group, which owns 43% of Sanlu Group, stated on Sunday that it has urged the Chinese company to recall since early August 2008.
Chinese news also reported that the first Sanlu related kidney stone case was discovered in early March 2008; while some reports quoted from a high rank government officer in Hebei province said that Sanlu knew about the use of melamine in its milk as early as 2005.
The scandal has rocked Chinese food safety concern yet again. In 2004, at least 13 babies died in Anhui province after drinking fake milk powder.
Update (Sept 17) - melamine found in more milk… 22 products from various dairy food firms are found contaminated by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).
Back in my school days I was taught that a person could live for 3-4 weeks without food but with water; the teaching is still applicable… but there are other factors that dictates the surviving period.
Mental strength, health condition, body weight, climates and some other factors play their part in determining the survival length; under optimal circumstances a person could live without food for 6-8 weeks or even longer in extreme cases.
I am not sure if there’s any official record for the longest survival without food; the longest record that I managed to find is 73 days during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. A total of 10 prisoners had died after 46 to 73 days of starvation in the strike.
Laurence McKeown survived the strike for 70 days, which could be the record for the longest period for a person to live without food and still surviving.
