The number of centenarian Japanese exceeded 50 thousand people
Centennial Club
Sergey Manukov, "Expert Online"Saburo Shochi recently completed a trip around the world.
This, of course, will not surprise anyone now, but Shochi moved only by public regular transport: planes, trains, steamships and buses. The fact that he is 106 years old adds even more uniqueness to his achievement.
Saburo Shochi would certainly have become a national hero in any other country, but not in Japan, where the number of residents whose age exceeds 100 years, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, amounted to 51376 people on September 16!
Life Lovers ClubOn Monday, the Japanese celebrated a national holiday – the 46th Day of the Elderly.
On this day, the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun honor their elders. On Monday, 3,620 Japanese men and women who have reached the centenary milestone over the past year received silver cups and letters signed by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda congratulating them on joining the informal club of centenarians.
For the first time, the number of this club exceeded 50,000 people, having increased by 3,620 people (7.5%) compared to the fall of 2011. The solid increase dispelled fears that last year's earthquake and tsunami, as well as the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, would negatively affect the number of Japanese centenarians. The fact is that among the tens of thousands of victims of the rampant elements in the northeast of Japan, there were especially many elderly people.
And yet last year's tragedy did not pass without a trace. Japanese women, who led the list of countries by life expectancy for a quarter of a century, lost first place to Hong Kong residents last year. The life expectancy of Japanese women in 2011 decreased by 0.4 years and amounted to 85.9 years, while for Hong Kong women, it increased to 86.7 years. Demographers believe that one of the reasons for the slight decline was just the March tragedy.
There is a real matriarchy in the club of centenarians. 87% of its members are representatives of the weaker sex. The only thing that Japanese men managed to do was to retain the title of the oldest Japanese. He is a 115-year-old resident of Kyoto Prefecture named Jiroemon Kimura, by the way, officially recognized last year by the Guinness Book of Records and the oldest inhabitant of the planet. He is quite a bit inferior to Koto Okubo from Kawasaki, a satellite city of Tokyo. She is 114 years old, and she has every chance to become the main centenarian of Japan.
By leaps and boundsNext year, the club of Japanese centenarians will celebrate its anniversary – it will be 50 years since Japan began to monitor the number of centenarians.
Then, in 1963, there were only 153 people. For a third of a century, the number of centenarians, of course, has grown, but not very impressively – in 1998 it exceeded 10 thousand.
A sharp jump has occurred in the last decade and a half, when centenarian elders and old women have become 5 times more! Japanese centenarians exceeded the 40 thousand mark only in 2009, when there were 40,399 people. And now a new frontier has been taken.
Experts have an explanation for this phenomenon. Elderly Japanese, unlike young people, continue to adhere to the traditional Japanese diet with a low fat content – rice, fish, vegetables. In addition, the rapid growth of centenarians in recent years has been facilitated by strong ties in families and society, a highly developed and relatively inexpensive healthcare system and generous pensions paid by the government to the Japanese who have retired.
The largest concentration of centenarians in Kochi Prefecture is 78.5 for every 10 thousand inhabitants. Shimane Prefecture is in second place with 77.8 and Yamaguchi is in third with 67.3.
Among the cities in the first place in terms of the number of centenarians is Tokyo. The capital of Japan is home to about 13 thousand people whose age exceeds 100 years. According to forecasts, by 2100, the number of Tokyites over 65 years old will equal the number of working-age citizens, i.e. from 15 to 64 years old.
Of course, the explosion in the number of old people has, oddly enough, serious disadvantages. In combination with the reduction of the workforce in the near future, it will put unprecedented pressure on the pension system of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Where are you, old man?In 2010, Japanese centenarians unwittingly found themselves in the center of a loud scandal.
The scandal broke out after the leadership of Tokyo's Adachi district wanted to congratulate 111-year-old Sogen Kato with the title of the oldest resident of the capital. It turned out to be surprisingly difficult to tell him the good news and give him a gift. At first, Kato's family said that he did not want to see anyone; then they said that he was ill. Having come once again and heard that the old man had gone to pray in some remote Buddhist temple, the officials turned to the police.
The search yielded unexpected results. The guards found Sogen Kato in his room. The old man's mummified body was lying on the bed under a blanket. The granddaughter, who lived in the same house, said that Kato stopped leaving the room in... 1978. He, as it turned out, dreamed of becoming a "living Buddha." Sogen Kato professed a rare trend in Buddhism, whose adherents achieved ultimate enlightenment by voluntarily giving up food and water and gradually fading away.
Death, obviously, occurred in 1978, but this did not prevent Kato's daughter from receiving a pension for her father for a third of a century. And for the mother, by the way, who has also been dead for a long time and whose death she also did not report to the authorities.
The story of Sogen Kato shocked the Japanese. Concerned authorities began checking other centenarians. The picture opened bleak.
It turned out, for example, that the oldest Japanese woman, whose age, according to government lists, was 125 years old, died many years ago, and a park was laid out on the site of her house back in 1981.
It turned out that at least two hundred centenarians listed in the lists of local authorities are not alive.
The main thing is not to complain about fatigueAs for Saburo Shochi, he is alive and well, which he proved when he returned home in August from a several-year round-the-world trip.
Shochi, a retired professor emeritus at Fukuoka University, not only admired the beauties of nature and monuments of architecture and antiquity, but also lectured on children's education and healthcare. His achievement was appreciated by the editors of the Guinness Book of Records, which will include him in its collection of the most amazing and curious achievements.
Upon his return, Saburo Shochi stated that he was going to live for a long time. To the frequently asked question of how he managed to live for so many years, Shochi answers: "I have never complained of fatigue in my entire life."
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru19.09.2012