More than 95,000 Japanese aged over 100, most of them women

The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000 — almost 90 per cent of them women — government data showed Tuesday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world's fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of September 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the health ministry said in a statement.

On Sunday separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of Japan's population.



The proportion puts Japan at the top of a list of 200 countries and regions with a population of over 100,000 people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. Japan is currently home to the world's oldest living person Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23, 1908 and is 116 years old, according to the US-based Gerontology Research Group. The previous record-holder, Maria Branyas Morera, died last month in Spain at the age of 117.

Itooka lives in a nursing home in Ashiya, Hyogo prefecture in western Japan, the ministry said. She often says "thank you" to the nursing home staff and expresses nostalgia about her hometown, the ministry said..