Japan now has 58,820 centenarians, the world’s largest proportion of people over 100 years old relative to the country’s population. Largely because of diet, lifestyle and improvements in the delivery of health care, Japan has 46.21 centenarians for every 100,000 people, compared with Canada, where there were 17.4 people over 100 per 100,000 population in 2011. Japan now has the world’s oldest woman – 116-year-old Misao Okawa – and the world’s oldest man – 111-year-old Sakari Momoi. Japan ranks near the top of average life expectancy: 86.61 years for women and 80.21 for men. Nearly 90% of Japan’s centenarians are women.
