Chisaki Watanabe
No image available
/ 25 March 2005

Japan’s centenarians symbolise hope and concern

Japan boasts both the world’s longest average life expectancy — 81,9 years — and has 23 000 people aged 100 or more. The United States is still ahead, but what’s surprising in Japan’s case is that its centenarian population has doubled in just five years, and will reach nearly one million — the world’s largest — by 2050, according to United Nations projections.