Japan is one of the countries with a high number of the elderly population in the world. It is reported that there is more than 20 percent of Japan’s population age above 65 years old.
It is amazing to see how elder people in Japan can sustain a healthy life even though some of them had live for almost a century. We’ve heard a lot of achievements being made by these old, yet strong people in the news.
Recently, the world’s oldest living person that has been recognized by the Guinness Book of Records achieved the all-time Japanese age record. Kane Tanaka achieved the age of 117 years and 261 years old last Saturday. The previous record was held by Nabi Tajima, who died in April 2018 aged 117 years and 260 days.
Tanaka was in a good health and enjoying her life every day, said her 60-year old grandson, Eiji Tanaka. Due to the restrictions because of the pandemic, her family could not celebrate the achievement with her. Japan has an annual public holiday every third Monday of September that is called Respect for the Aged Day.
She was born on 2 January 1903. It is the year where the Wright brothers made their first powered flight. Living for over a century gave her the opportunity to experience the reign of five Japanese emperors. She is truly the living history.
The government released that 36.17 million Japanese aged 65 above, including 80,450 who are aged at least 100 years old. It is expected that the age group will achieve a 35% population by 2040.
Source: The Guardian