TOKYO, Japan — Japan’s population of centenarians has reached a new high of 99,763, the health ministry announced this week, extending a remarkable run of 55 consecutive years of growth.
Women account for nearly 88 percent of the total, reflecting a gender gap in life expectancy that is among the widest in the world.
The oldest living person in Japan is 114-year-old Shigeko Kagawa from Yamatokoriyama, near Nara, while the oldest man is 111-year-old Kiyotaka Mizuno from Iwata.
Health minister Takamaro Fukoka congratulated the 87,784 women and 11,979 men who have lived beyond 100, thanking them for “their many years of contributions to the development of society.”
The figures were released just ahead of Japan’s Elderly Day on Monday, September 15, 2025, when new centenarians are traditionally honoured with a congratulatory letter and a silver sake cup from the prime minister.
This year, 52,310 people crossed the threshold.
Japan’s demographic transformation has been striking. When the government began tracking centenarians in 1963, just 153 people had reached 100.
The number passed 1,000 in 1981, 10,000 in 1998, and has continued its rapid ascent in line with growing life expectancy.
Medical experts attribute the increase to low rates of cardiovascular disease and common cancers, alongside a diet rich in fish, vegetables, and fermented foods, and relatively low in red meat.
Public health campaigns have also reduced salt consumption, while obesity rates remain among the lowest globally.
Lifestyle factors have also played a role. Walking, use of public transport, and community exercise programmes — such as the century-old Radio Taiso morning calisthenics — have reinforced Japan’s culture of active ageing.
Japan, home to the world’s longest average life expectancy, also faces one of the fastest-ageing populations, raising questions about the sustainability of healthcare and pensions as the birth rate continues to fall.
The accuracy of centenarian records has occasionally come under scrutiny.
A 2010 government review uncovered more than 230,000 names of people listed as 100 or older who could not be accounted for, some of whom had died decades earlier.
The probe was triggered by the discovery that Sogen Koto, long thought to be Tokyo’s oldest man, had in fact died 32 years before his reported death at 111.
