Centenarians in Japan top 95,000, hitting record for 54th straight year

TOKYO, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — The number of people aged 100 or older in Japan stood at a record 95,119 as of Sunday, marking an increase for the 54th year in a row, government data showed on Tuesday.
The total number, taken from the basic resident register system, was up 2,980 from a year before, with females accounting for 88.3 percent at 83,958, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
The average number of centenarians per 100,000 people in the country came to 76.49.
By prefecture, Shimane logged the highest proportion, at 159.5 for every 100,000 people, marking the 12th consecutive year that the western prefecture topped the list. It was followed by Kochi at 154.20 and Kagoshima at 130.73.
Japan had 153 centenarians in 1963, when data were first collected. The figure surpassed 1,000 in 1981, 10,000 in 1998, 50,000 in 2012 and 90,000 in 2022. ■