Japan’s Centenarians Hit Record for 54th Straight Year; Shimane Prefecture Topped List

Jiji Press

11:58 JST, September 17, 2024

Tokyo (Jiji Press)—The number of centenarians in Japan stood at 95,119 as of Sunday, hitting a record high for 54 years in a row, the health ministry said Tuesday.

The figure, taken from the basic resident register system, grew by 2,980 from a year before. Women accounted for 83,958, or about 88 pct of the total.

Japan had 153 centenarians in 1963, when the country began taking the statistics. The number exceeded 1,000 in 1981, 10,000 in 1998, 50,000 in 2012 and 90,000 in 2022.

The number of centenarians per 100,000 population came to 76.49.

The rate was highest among the country’s 47 prefectures in Shimane at 159.54, marking the 12th consecutive year that the western prefecture topped the rankings. It was followed by Kochi at 154.20 and Kagoshima at 130.73.

The rate was lowest in Saitama at 45.81, followed by Aichi at 48.80 and Chiba at 52.60.

The country’s oldest woman was Tomiko Itooka, a 116-year-old in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, while the oldest man is 110-year-old Kiyotaka Mizuno of Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture.

The number of people turning 100 during fiscal 2024 through next March stands at 47,888. They will be gifted a congratulatory letter and a silver cup.