Centenarians in Japan set to number over 50,000 for 1st time
News On Japan via Mainichi -- Sep 14
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older is expected to again set a new record this year, topping 50,000 for the first time, a health ministry survey ahead of Respect for the Aged Day showed Friday.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry survey, conducted annually since 1963, showed that centenarians are projected to total 51,376 as of Sept. 15, up 3,620 from a year earlier, marking the 42nd consecutive year of increase.
Women accounted for a record 87.3 percent of all centenarians this year. They numbered 44,842, up 3,248 from a year earlier. Male centenarians totaled 6,534, up 372. It was the 42nd straight year of rise for women and 32nd consecutive year of increase for men.
Japan's oldest person is Jiroemon Kimura, a 115-year-old man from Kyotango, Kyoto Prefecture. He was born April 19, 1897. He is currently recognized as the world's oldest male by the Guinness Book of Records.
A 24-year-old woman was in a serious condition Friday after being stabbed by a man whom she reported to police for stalking her in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. (Japan Today )
China's television regulator has ordered a crackdown on dramas about the country's battles with Japan during and before World War Two and demanded they be more serious, state media said on Friday, following viewer complaints about ludicrous storylines. (Reuters )
Police said Friday they have found four dead bodies in an apartment in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, in what is believed to have been a family murder-suicide. (Japan Today )
Shukan Post (May 24) conveys the difficulties experienced by other parts of the adult-entertainment biz in servicing customers from the communist nation.
A deri heru (“delivery health”) call-girl tells the tabloid that she is often requested to arrive at major hotels in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro entertainment areas of Tokyo by Chinese visitors. (Tokyo Reporter)
Six sailors were found dead after a fire on a foreign freighter docked at a port in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
The sailors are presumed to be Russians. (NHK )
Police on Friday said that a real estate company employee was stabbed by an unknown assailant in the lobby of an office building near JR Akihabara station. The man is currently in a serious condition in hospital. (Japan Today )