Japan has record number of over 100-year-old people

TOKYO: In mid-July, the Japanese government announced that Chiyo Miyako, the oldest person in the world, had died at 117. Her title would probably not have to travel far: Another Japanese woman, 115-year-old Kane Tanaka, was expected to become the oldest woman in the world in her place, Washington Post reported.

New information released by the Japanese Health Ministry suggests that there may be more Japanese women who take the record in the future. The ministry announced on Friday that the number of Japanese citizens who were older than 100 had risen to reach 69,785. Of that number, more than 88 percent are women.

The figure is an increase of more than 2,000 centenarians from 2017 and a dramatic increase from 1965, when Japan first started collecting data on those who had lived past 100. Back then, there were 153.

Japan celebrates the lives of its centenarians. Monday will be a public holiday known as the Respect for the Aged Day, when those who have reached the 100-year mark receive a letter of congratulations from the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a commemorative sake cup.