Japan Sets Record: Nearly 100,000 People Aged Over 100 (bbc.com)
- Reference: 0179238980
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/09/14/2023209/japan-sets-record-nearly-100000-people-aged-over-100
- Source link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd07nljlyv0o
> Setting a new record for the 55th year in a row, the number of centenarians in Japan was 99,763 as of September, the health ministry said on Friday. Of that total, women accounted for an overwhelming 88%... Health minister Takamaro Fukoka congratulated the 87,784 female and 11,979 male centenarians on their longevity and expressed his "gratitude for their many years of contributions to the development of society"....
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> The higher life expectancy is mainly attributed to fewer deaths from heart disease and common forms of cancer, in particular breast and prostate cancer. Japan has low rates of obesity, a major contributing factor to both diseases, thanks to diets low in red meat and high in fish and vegetables. The obesity rate is particularly low for women, which could go some way to explaining why Japanese women have a much higher life expectancy than their male counterparts... But it's not just diet. Japanese people tend to stay active into later life, walking and using public transport more than elderly people in the US and Europe...
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> However, several studies have cast doubt on the validity of global centenarian numbers, suggesting data errors, unreliable public records and missing birth certificates may account for elevated figures. A government audit of family registries in Japan in 2010 uncovered more than [2]230,000 people listed as being aged 100 or older who were unaccounted for , some having in fact died decades previously. The miscounting was attributed to patchy record-keeping and suspicions that some families may have tried to hide the deaths of elderly relatives in order to claim their pensions.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd07nljlyv0o
[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11258071
Reminds me of a meme (Score:1)
It asks the question why don't kids play outside anymore and then in the next frame there's a picture of a pretty typical American city with absolutely no sidewalks let alone Parks or anything and the subtitle "the outside".
You give up a portion of your life in exchange for cars and a car centric civilization. And I guess for most people they think it's worth it.
Re: (Score:2)
Did you find your way over to r/fuckcars or something?
Japan had a massive car culture of their own and the Greater Tokyo Area is regarded as the largest metro area in the world.
Kids don't play outside as much for a variety of reasons. Smaller family sizes make parents more protective, and ubiquitous computers have made inside entertainment plentiful and inexpensive. Urbanization plays a part as well, but it's by no means the only culprit.
Kewl story, fellate a running car's tailpipe then (Score:2)
> Electric cars don't eliminate or even reduce nor help climate change and pollution. Most of that smog you see is tire particulate. We've been running zero emissions cars from most vehicles for a while now. We do have a problem with idling semi trucks but they mostly do that outside city limits. Most of the smog you're seeing is coming from little bits of tire.
> It's one of those things where scientists wondered for years were tires went because they aren't on the roads and it turns out the answer is in your lungs.
> Electric cars if anything are going to make smog worse. They're heavier and they burn through tires faster because of it.
> Nobody wants to hear this because this is a forum full of old farts and we don't like change and we want to keep driving our cars and our SUVs.
> There are some upsides to electric cars, specifically it drastically reduces our dependency on foreign oil which is a good thing for all kinds of reasons. And in theory if we all switched to renewables and we might get a small but noticeable improvement to climate change. Although keep in mind the energy needed to build out and maintain electric cars means it's not going to be night and day.
> If you actually want clean air and to fight climate change you need walkable cities and public transportation. Try not to worry about the government controlling where you go because give it a few years and you'll be stuck in a self-driving car anyway, never mind that the government still needs to build the roads so they still decide where you're going to go.
> But again change sucks and we all grew up playing with toy cars so nobody wants to hear it. And because most of us are older we are probably going to be dead before the problems really hit. Kind of fucked up to leave the mess to our kids though... -- www.fark.com/politics
OK, exhaust is just fine? Put your mouth on the tailpipe of a started car. How about starting a gas car in your garage with the door closed? Try hanging out there for an hour relaxing and then tell me how harmless it is. I'd rather breathe the air around electric cars than ICEs...and I know EV are not perfect with emissions. (ozone)....but ICEs are extremely poisonous...everyone knows this.!
Re: (Score:2)
> Japan had a massive car culture of their own and the Greater Tokyo Area is regarded as the largest metro area in the world.
A big difference is that in Japan there is often a choice. It is true that there is a big car culture, there are people for whom cars is their hobby. But for getting to work, going out to meet with friends, popping out to the shops, or going on holiday, people (particularly in cities or towns) have a variety of transport options, any of which they might choose in the right circumstances.
I'm aware (Score:2)
I am also aware that they have a functioning public transportation system to the point where it is possible to live in many places in Japan that aren't one of the two big cities and still not own a car.
In America outside of some special circumstances unless you live in San Francisco or New York City you're going to own a car. There might be a few places in La you can pull it off too.
I cannot as an American for example get on a train and go hardly anywhere. My choices are an expensive plane ticket or
Re: (Score:3)
> You give up a portion of your life in exchange for cars and a car centric civilization. And I guess for most people they think it's worth it.
I have no idea about Japan but I live in the city and I can drive for an hour and be far enough from civilization that if I don't return I might never be found. Indeed unless you consider an urban park to be adequate, a car - whether owned, borrowed, or rented - will get you much closer to actual wilderness than transit ever will. Ironically car centric culture can actually get people closer to nature, should they choose to do so.
Re: (Score:3)
> a car - whether owned, borrowed, or rented - will get you much closer to actual wilderness than transit ever will. Ironically car centric culture can actually get people closer to nature, should they choose to do so.
That's true - a car is a good way to escape the city and get close to nature.
I think the problem is when cars become the sole choice for moving around in general. When the city is designed such that cycling is too hard, walking is impractical, and public transport is unappealing... and you end up using the car even for short trips. In that situation, you find that your whole life is basically sitting down. If you want exercise, you need to make special time for it.
How often does anyone actually do that though? (Score:2)
It's like those people who buy a $60,000 parking lot princess so they can haul a couch twice a year.
You could have saved yourself 20 grand and let your relatives pay for delivery.
Re: (Score:2)
In Japan, in the rural areas, people are more likely to use cars as a workhorse.
But in cities like Tokyo, most office workers don't use a car to commute. Yet people do still own a car. For those who use the car infrequently, I liken this to someone in the US owning a sailboat. They like sailing, and may use it on the weekend, but it would be inaccurate to say they use the sailboat to get from A to B.
Hmm (Score:2)
I hate to ask difficult questions, but how many of them were involved with Japan's belligerence in WW2?
Re: Hmm (Score:2)
Why ask? To what end? They surrendered 80 years ago.
Re: (Score:2)
> I hate to ask difficult questions, but how many of them were involved with Japan's belligerence in WW2?
Are you worried about what "tend to stay active into later life" specifically refers to? /j
Makes sense (Score:2)
Low obesity with a generally healthy, low fat, low sugar diet. Lots of walking and cycling rather than car-only. Strong sense of community.
Good luck paying for all those pensions (Score:3)
With very low natality and immigration.
Also... (Score:1)
Universal healthcare is also a significant reason why the US loses out to every other rich country in the world in objective metrics of healthcare.
(e.g., cost, longevity, infant mortality, maternal mortality, etc.)
Are they really aged over 100? (Score:2)
A recent study concluded that areas with a high proportion of centenarians were usually areas with shoddy record keeping and/or high rates of pension fraud. In other words, many of the centenarians were actually younger than they claimed to be.
One study is here: [1]https://www.biorxiv.org/conten... [biorxiv.org]
Media coverage here: [2]https://www.nytimes.com/2024/0... [nytimes.com]
and here: [3]https://allthatsinteresting.co... [allthatsinteresting.com]
[1] https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/704080v2.full.pdf
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/13/world/australia/ig-nobel-awards.html
[3] https://allthatsinteresting.com/blue-zones-supercentenarians
Re: um what (Score:1)
Lead by example?