Japan's Centenarians Pass 100,000, and Most Are Women
Japan has crossed a threshold that no other country has reached. In September 2026, official figures put the number of Japanese people aged 100 or older at 107,677 — the first time the total has passed 100,000, and the 56th consecutive year of increase. When the count began in 1963, Japan had just 153 centenarians. The rise since then is roughly a seven-hundredfold jump.
The most striking detail is not the total but the split. Women account for 88 percent of Japan’s centenarians, or 94,298 people, against 13,379 men. The imbalance is not a quirk of one year; it shows up in longevity data across most of the world, and Japan is simply the clearest example because so many of its citizens live long enough to be counted. Japan’s oldest living person is also a woman, Fuyo Kishimoto of Kyoto, born in 1907.
Why do women so consistently outlast men? Researchers point to a mix of biology and behavior rather than a single cause. Estrogen appears to offer some protection for the cardiovascular system earlier in life. Women also tend to carry two X chromosomes, which may provide a backup copy of genes involved in immune function. On the behavioral side, men in Japan historically smoked and drank more heavily, worked in more physically dangerous jobs, and were less likely to see a doctor for minor complaints.
The pattern is not uniquely Japanese. France, Italy and Spain all report similar female majorities among their oldest citizens, and global estimates suggest women make up roughly four in five people who reach 100 worldwide. What sets Japan apart is scale. The country has the world’s highest life expectancy and a population that has been aging quickly for decades, so its centenarian statistics are watched closely by demographers everywhere.
That success brings hard questions. A country with more than 100,000 centenarians also has millions of people in their eighties and nineties who may need care. Japan has responded with long-term care insurance, community day programs and a growing fleet of assistive robots, but labor shortages in nursing remain acute. The same arithmetic is now arriving in China, South Korea and parts of Europe, which are aging faster than Japan did at a comparable stage.
The centenarian boom also changes how researchers study aging. Because Japan has kept detailed records for so long, scientists can look at what centenarians actually ate, how much they moved, and how socially connected they stayed. Common threads include diets heavy in vegetables, fish and legumes, moderate portion sizes, regular low-intensity activity and strong community ties — habits that are easy to describe and hard to replicate in countries built around cars and screens.
There is a caution in the numbers too. Reaching 100 is not the same as reaching 100 in good health. Many of Japan’s oldest citizens live with chronic conditions and need daily support. Researchers increasingly argue that the more useful measure is healthy life expectancy, the years a person spends free of serious disability, and by that measure the gap between men and women narrows.
For the rest of the world, the Japanese case is less a curiosity than a preview. The climb from 153 to 107,677 took 63 years. Several other countries are now on the same curve, just further back. Whether they handle it as well depends on choices about care, work and urban design that are being made right now.