Japan centenarians reach nearly 100,000

The number of people aged 100 or older in Japan has hit a record high of nearly 100,000, with almost 90 percent of them women, ministry data showed on Friday.

The figures underscore the demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks.

As of September 1, Japan had 99,763 centenarians, up 4,644 year-on-year, with 88 percent of them women, the health ministry said in a statement.

Japan’s oldest person is 114-year-old Shigeko Kagawa in the Nara region near Kyoto.

She remained active past 80 years old as an obstetrician-gynecologist and a general doctor, according to the ministry.

“Walking extensively during house calls built strong legs, which are the source of my current vitality,” Kagawa was cited as saying in the statement.

She still has good eyesight so she spends the day watching TV, reading newspapers and doing calligraphy.

The world’s oldest person is British woman Ethel Caterham, who turned 116 in August, months after the title passed to her following the death of Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas.

Japan is facing a steadily worsening population crisis, as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labour force to pay for it.

Official data last month showed that the population of Japanese nationals fell by a record amount -- more than 900,000 people -- in 2024.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has called the situation a “quiet emergency”, pledging family-friendly measures such as more flexible working hours and free day care to try and reverse the trend.

However, the government’s efforts to slow the decline and ageing of its population have yet to yield meaningful results.

On the other hand, Japanese Emperor Naruhito, accompanied by his wife and daughter, paid their respects Friday to atomic bombing victims in Nagasaki as he wrapped up a tour of some of the worst-hit places in World War II and Japan marked the 80th anniversary of the bombing.

Naruhito, his wife, Empress Masako, and their daughter, Princess Aiko, bowed deeply and offered bouquets of white flowers at the cenotaph for atomic bombing victims at the ground-zero site in the peace memorial park in Nagasaki.

The United States dropped a plutonium bomb on the southwestern city of Nagasaki at 11:02 a.m. on Aug. 9, 1945, killing more than 70,000 people by the end of that year. The attack came only three days after the US dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, destroying the city and killing 140,000 others. Japan announced its surrender on Aug. 15, ending World War II and the country’s nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.

Agencies