Humans are living longer and longer. Now Japan has broken a new record for longevity: more than 100,000 people in the country are centenarians—some 107,677 of them are at least 100 years old.
Japan has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Researchers believe this national longevity is likely linked to low rates of obesity, healthy diets, widespread health screenings and affordable health care, which lead to lower mortality rates from heart disease and cancer.
“I am very happy that so many people have been able to stay active for so long,” said Japan’s health minister Kenichiro Ueno at a news conference announcing the milestone in Tokyo on Tuesday.
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Japan is “exactly where you would expect to see this first,” says Jay Olshansky, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois Chicago. But he expects more countries to follow as large birth cohorts hit the 100-year mark and medical advances continue.
“Most people at older ages now are living on manufactured time—time that was created for us by our physicians and by the public health community,” he says.
But more people living long lives isn’t all good news. Japan also has one of the lower birth rates in the world. And its lower fertility rates and smaller working-age population are squeezing public resources and making caring for its older populations more difficult. Additionally, a long life can be “a potentially dangerous scenario unless it’s accompanied by good health,” Olshansky says.
Japan’s oldest known person, Fuyo Kumamato, is 114 years old. (The oldest living person in the world, Ethel Caterham in the U.K., is 117 years old.) Researchers around the world are studying supercentenarians, people older than age 110, in hopes of keeping more people healthy for longer.
“What’s really critical about this is quality of life,” Olshansky adds. “Just living longer should not be the primary goal of medicine and public health anymore. It should be health extension or health span.”
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