Japan's elder population, those aged 100 or more, closing in on the 100,000 mark.
Japan is experiencing a significant increase in its centenarian population, with the number of people aged 100 or over rising for the fifty-fifth consecutive year. As of September 1, 2025, there were 99,763 centenarians in Japan, an increase of 4,644 from the previous year.
The prefecture with the highest ratio of centenarians per 100,000 people is Shimane, with 168.7 centenarians per 100,000 people. Tottori follows closely behind with a ratio of 144.6, and Kagoshima and Kōchi round out the top three with ratios of 136.5 and 157.2, respectively.
On the other hand, Tokyo has the lowest ratio of centenarians per 100,000 people among all prefectures at 57.5. Osaka and Chiba also have low ratios of 55.4 and 57.3, respectively. Interestingly, Western Japan tends to have higher ratios of centenarians than the east of the country.
Women account for 88.0% of centenarians in Japan. Kagawa Shigeko, aged 114, is Japan's oldest woman and lives in Yamatokōriyama, Nara Prefecture. Esaki Reona, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973, became a new member of the centenarian club in March 2025.
Mizuno Kiyotaka, aged 111, is Japan's oldest man and lives in Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture. It is important to note that there is no information about a Japanese centenarian born in 2025 because a centenarian is a person who is at least 100 years old, so it is impossible for anyone born in 2025 to be a centenarian in the same year.
Japan's increasing centenarian population can be traced back to 1963, when there were only 153 Japanese centenarians nationwide. The country's advances in healthcare and nutrition have likely contributed to this trend. Japan experienced its fifty-fifth annual rise in people aged 100 or over, highlighting the country's success in extending the human lifespan.
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