The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has reached a record high of more than 95,000, with nearly 90 percent of them women, government data showed on Tuesday.
The figures further underscore the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-largest economy as its population ages and shrinks.
As of September 1st, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, which is 2,980 more than the previous year, of which 83,958 are women and 11,161 are men, the health ministry said in a statement.
On Sunday, separate government data showed the number of those who are aged over 65 reached a record 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of Japan’s population.
That ratio puts Japan at the top of a list of 200 countries and regions with a population of over 100,000 people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
Japan is currently home to the world’s oldest living person, Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23rd, 1908 and is 116 years old, according to the American Gerontology Research Group.
The previous record holder, Maria Branyas Morera, died last month in Spain at the age of 117.
Itooka lives in a nursing home in Aashiya, Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan, the ministry said.
E.Dz.
