On September 15, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced that the number of centenarians nationwide reached 107,677 (up 7,914 from the previous year) as of the 1st of this month, topping 100,000 for the first time since record-keeping began in 1963. Women accounted for nearly 90% of the total at 94,298, and the oldest person is a 114-year-old resident of Kyoto. This marks the 56th consecutive year the record has been broken, and the figures are part of an annual survey released ahead of Respect for the Aged Day on the 21st. On 5channel threads, discussion ranged from worries over pension finances, to comparisons with the era of Kin-san and Gin-san when living past 100 was still rare, to debates over why women tend to live longer.
Centenarians top 100,000 for the first time… nearly 90% women, oldest is a 114-year-old in Kyoto: Yomiuri Shimbun
It was revealed on the 15th that the number of centenarians nationwide reached 107,677 (up 7,914 from the previous year) as of the 1st of this month, topping 100,000 for the first time since the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare began compiling the data. This marks the 56th consecutive year the record has been broken. Women made up nearly 90% at 94,298, while men numbered 13,379.
The ministry compiles this data every year ahead of Respect for the Aged Day (the 21st). Thanks to advances in medical care and rising health awareness, the number of centenarians has kept climbing. In 1963, when record-keeping began, there were only 153; the figure passed 50,000 in 2012 and has continued to grow since.
Source: yomiuri.co.jp / Original article here
4AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:32
What are we gonna do about pensions?
25AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:38
Re: #4
Old folks: 'Heh heh heh, we'll leech off the young ones' backs, sucking them dry. Work, work, work!'
100AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:06
Re: #4
The former Komeito health minister who once claimed the pension system was 'secure for 100 years' has passed away too.
14AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:36
Kin-san and Gin-san were twins who both hit 100, you know.
Now do you get how amazing that was?
24AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:37
Re: #14
Back then there were only 3,000 centenarians in the whole country, so they were basically superhuman.
26AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:38
Re: #14
Forget pensions — those two were still hustling and raking in cash even at 100.
31AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:40
Re: #14
Back then cities and prefectures would hand out congratulatory money when you turned 100.
Now there are so many centenarians that a lot of places don't even bother anymore.
20AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:37
People in their 80s and up are the generation that actually knew hunger,
and also lived through an era when women drinking or smoking was simply unthinkable.
Those two factors are why Japanese women live so extraordinarily long.
Starting with today's 70-somethings, average lifespan is going to drop sharply.
In fact, people in their 70s are already dying off left and right.
They lived through the wildest era for drinking and smoking, and a lot of those habits are still with them.
204AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:56
Re: #20
That's got nothing to do with it.
It's because women back then mostly didn't work and had it easy.
Overseas, women actually go out and work too, so there's barely any gender gap in lifespan there.
The fact that Japan has the world's biggest male-female lifespan gap is actually the weird part.
219AnonymousSep 15, 2026 14:06
Re: #204
Are you an idiot?
Women back then worked the rice paddies and fields with a baby strapped to their back.
And men back then were out working too — paddies, fields, community duties, home repairs — moving around way more than men do today.
39AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:41
But you still can't break through the 120-year wall, right?
125AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:15
Re: #39
Seems to be pretty much settled, worldwide included, that the human lifespan caps out around 120.
Though plenty of researchers are working to push past that.
131AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:18
Re: #125
I wonder how old Shigechiyo Izumi actually was. (a man once recorded as the world's oldest person, whose real age was later disputed)
148AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:27
Re: #125
Human lifespan basically comes down to the limit on how many times your cells can divide.
Get injured or sick, and you burn through more of those divisions, which shortens your life.
People who live long are generally just the lucky ones born to a life free of injury and illness.
40AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:41
They had a frugal childhood with little exposure to toxins,
then got to grow old just as medicine advanced insanely.
Probably the generation best positioned to live the longest.
Question is whether today's smartphone-addicted, poorly-nourished generation can pull off the same.
52AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:45
Re: #40
Back when they were kids it was dysentery and typhoid fever.
Basically no Japanese person catches those nowadays.
42AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:41
Once you're past 100,
I don't think living long really means being happy.
Honestly, I don't want to live that long myself.
51AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:45
Re: #42
People who die past 90 tend to just run out of energy —
even before death they barely seem to know whether they're dying or still alive, so it looks pretty peaceful for them.
But people who die of cancer in their 60s are still sharp mentally,
so they die fighting the cancer the whole way — that seems way harder on them, doesn't it?
43AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:41
So there's really nobody left who was born in the Meiji era.
46AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:43
Re: #43
That 114-year-old is Japan's last surviving person born in the Meiji era.
73AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:55
It's a happy occasion, sure, but it's a burden on social security.
Bittersweet.
75AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:56
Re: #73
And the ones providing care for them these days are themselves seniors past 60.
That's an aging society for you.
74AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:56
Pension payouts to centenarians — 10 billion yen a month!
90AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:00
Re: #74
You need at least that much to support their sons from the employment ice-age generation. (Japan's 'lost generation' who struggled to find jobs)
83AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:58
Women really do live longer.
Looking at my own family, both my grandmothers lived past 100,
and there's this common pattern where the uncle dies but the aunt is still going strong.
Guess men wear themselves down with brutal labor and die early because of it.
128AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:17
Re: #83
Well, stress plays a part too, but
back then men were drinking and smoking heavily,
while it was considered shameful for women to drink or smoke at all — I think that's a big factor too.
88AnonymousSep 15, 2026 12:59
Fine if you're healthy, but
I don't want to live long while battling some illness.
I'd rather just die peacefully in my sleep at 49 without even noticing.
Pensions will be bankrupt by the time it's our turn anyway.
217AnonymousSep 15, 2026 14:05
Re: #88
If you're in your early 20s now, by the time the ice-age generation has mostly died off you might get to enjoy a rosy pension retirement.
But people in their 30s might just barely miss the cutoff…
163AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:38
Five years ago there was that theory going around about the vaccine wiping everyone out in one go — population reduction and all that.
169AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:39
Re: #163
Population hasn't dropped at all.
Turns out the anti-vaxxers were just making stuff up.
175AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:42
Re: #163
And they were going on like crazy about how everyone would be dead within two years.
196AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:51
All four of my grandparents lived past 100, so I must have inherited the longevity genes too ('ω')
198AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:52
Re: #196
Guess you'll have to pay a 'nuisance tax' then, lol
199AnonymousSep 15, 2026 13:53
Re: #196
Is that really something to be happy about?
Background and Key Points of This Story
This latest milestone of topping 100,000 centenarians is the product of an accelerating trend: from just 153 centenarians when record-keeping began in 1963, to 50,000 in 2012, to 100,000 now — part of the annual announcement made ahead of Respect for the Aged Day. In the thread, commenters brought up Kin-san and Gin-san (Kin Narita and Gin Kanie), the twin centenarians who became famous in the 1990s, noting that centenarians were far rarer back then than they are today. As for why women make up 90% of the total, opinions split between social factors — like wartime and postwar food shortages and differing smoking and drinking habits — and physiological factors like female hormones, without settling on a single answer. There were plenty of worries about the burden on pensions and elder care, but the thread also brought up the theory that human lifespan tops out around 120, so the discussion didn’t end on pure optimism.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (News Speed+) thread “Centenarians top 100,000 for the first time… nearly 90% women, oldest is a 114-year-old in Kyoto.”
