The number of people aged 100 or older living in Japan has passed 100,000 for the first time, a record in a country long known for longevity.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said on Tuesday that the centenarian population reached 107,677 in September, up by almost 8,000 on the previous year. It is the 56th consecutive year the figure has risen.

Women account for 88% of the total, or 94,298 people.

“I am very pleased that so many people are remaining active and healthy for so long,” Health Minister Kenichiro Ueno told reporters.

The ministry named the country’s oldest residents as Fuyo Kishimoto, a 114-year-old woman in Kyoto, and Hikaru Kato, a 112-year-old man from Kumamoto.

Japan consistently ranks among the world’s longest-living countries, with average life expectancy of 84 years in 2024 according to the World Bank, against 79 in the United States. Researchers have attributed the pattern to diet and an advanced healthcare system. Despite a reputation for long working hours in the cities, some residents follow the philosophy of ikigai, which emphasises finding value and joy in life.

The record sits inside a shrinking country

The milestone comes as Japan’s overall population continues to contract. The country’s 123 million people are declining as birth rates hit record lows, and the ageing of the population is adding to the cost of elderly care while shrinking the workforce of the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Japan has opened its labour market to skilled and lower-skilled foreign workers in recent years, though the government has recently tightened visa requirements amid a rise in anti-foreigner sentiment.

The figures land on the same day Sri Lanka’s own labour statistics drew attention to a workforce participation rate well below its low unemployment headline — a different problem, but one that turns on the same question of how many people of working age are actually in work.

Not reported

Neither report gives the prefectural breakdown of centenarians, the figure for the previous year in absolute terms, or the ministry’s projection for future years. Neither states the cost to Japan’s elderly care system or the size of the current foreign workforce.

Sources