Japanese centenarians hit record high for 41st consecutive year
The number of Japanese aged 100 or older will hit a record 47,756 on Thursday, according to an estimation by the health ministry, increasing for the 41st consecutive year.
An estimated 24,952 Japanese turned 100 in the year to March 31, an increase of 1,683 in the figure of last year Photo: PA
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
September 15 was until recently the Respect for the Elderly national holiday and the ministry marks the day by releasing figures for the number of Japanese celebrating a century of life.
This year's figure is up 3,307 from 12 months previously and includes Jirouemon Kimura, who is 114 years old and is recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest man in the world.
Mr Kimura, who lives in Kyoto Prefecture, was born in 1897, the year in which William McKinley became president of the United States, Guglielmo Marconi sends the first ever wireless message and Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.
An estimated 24,952 Japanese turned 100 in the year to March 31, an increase of 1,683 in the figure of last year, although the ministry has cautioned that its statistics may have to be corrected when further information is available on people who died in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that struck the north-east coast of Japan.
Its figures may also be skewed as local authorities have not yet been able to contact all the people listed as being 100 or older but who might no longer be alive.
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The discovery of a mummified body in July 2010 forced authorities to re-examine their numbers. More than 200 people listed as centenarians were eventually determined to have died, often as relatives wanted to continue to claim their pensions.
One woman would have been 125 years old, but her registered address had been turned into a park 30 years earlier. The body of another woman was located in her son's backpack, where they had been for more than a decade.
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