The number of Japanese citizens aged 100 and over has grown for the 54th consecutive year, now reaching a record 95,000 people.
The Ministry of Health released these statistics in celebration of the national holiday Respect for the Aged Day, stating that the number of centenarians has increased by 2,980 compared to last year, according to a report by Tokyo-based Kyodo News on Tuesday.
Women accounted for 83,958, or 88.3%, of the 95,000 centenarians, while men numbered 11,161.
Japan has one of the oldest populations in the world.
The ministry also published data showing that Japan’s overall elderly population, aged 65 and older, stood at 36.25 million last year, with 25.2% of them employed.
Tomiko Itooka, a 116-year-old Japanese woman, was declared the world’s oldest person in the Guinness Book of Records last month, while 110-year-old Kiyotaka Mizuno is the oldest man in Japan.
Japan’s population has decreased from 122.42 million in 2022 to 121.56 million in 2023, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in July.
This marked the 15th consecutive year of population decline and the largest drop since records began in 1968.