Japan has surpassed 100,000 people aged 100 or older for the first time, with the number of centenarians rising for a 56th consecutive year to 107,677. Women account for 88 per cent of them. But what is behind Japan’s extraordinary longevity, and do we really want to live beyond 100?
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TRANSCRIPT
Japan is already one of Australia’s favourite places to go on holiday.
Among the things we love about it and its people are the food, their punctuality and the respect they show for one another while trying to live honourable lives.
Now our island neighbour to the north has another distinction - that 100,000 Japanese have made it to their 100th birthday and beyond.
But how? Is it eating raw fish and less processed foods? Or could the secret be more walking and Bonsai?
For Professor Henry Brodaty, from the University of New South Wales’ Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, the answers require us to look beyond the headline number.
"First of all, we have to consider the demography of the two countries. Australia has 26 or 27 million people. Japan has over 100,000,000 people. Also, look at the birth rates. Japan has had, for many years now, very low birth rate. So the whole population is older. And this is really quite a crisis for Japan economically, because numbers of people of working age, proportionately, are decreasing."
In other words, Japan’s 100,000 centenarians are both an achievement and a warning.
If Japan is a holiday postcard from Australia’s future, there is an important message written on the back - Australia is ageing too.
Life expectancy here is already among the highest in the world, and is expected to rise further over the next 40 years.
So the question is not simply whether we can live longer, it is whether we can stay well, connected and in control of our lives while we do?
Professor Brodaty says there are parts of Japanese life worth taking note of.
"They do have a healthier lifestyle. They eat less food, which fats and high and ultra-processed foods. They eat a lot of fish, which has been associated with a better diet and a lower risk of dementia. I'm not sure about the alcohol intake, but I suspect it's lower than Australia as well. A nd the family structure in Japan does allow for better social connectedness and more support. That may be another factor too."
That does not mean Japan has all the answers.
Professor Brodaty says it also has high rates of high blood pressure and vascular disease, and faces enormous pressure caring for its older population.
"They do have high rates of high blood pressure and vascular, vascular disease. They don't have lower rates of stress. In fact, our suicide rate is about 12 to 100,000; and theirs is about 16 to 100,000. So I discount that as a possibility. There may be genetic factors too. We don't really know that, but principally it's because they have a lot more older people and fewer children, and the birth rate is very low. So that distorts the statistics and makes it look like a higher proportion of them are centenarians and that's true because they have a higher proportion of aged people generally."
Professor Marco Amati, from RMIT University’s Centre for Urban Research, says healthy ageing is also about ageing at home in familiar surroundings.
"In Australia, one of the big challenges here has been with the private care sector, aged care sector. There's been royal commissions on that, for example. In Japan, there is a very strong commitment to ageing in place, and the reason why people want to age in place is because it's the most dignified way to age. You can age surrounded by your community, by all your possessions, with the most familiar surroundings, and being taken away from that and and put into an age care facility... It can, of course, in some cases work great, but in many other cases, it can be very traumatic for everybody."
Japan has designed some housing to support people as they age, including people in rental and public housing, and some with early dementia.
It works to ensure that the elderly can continue to remain at home in familiar surroundings.
Professor Amati says the degree of planning in Japan is revealing - its rail network alone - is in a league of its own.
"When they’re now putting in a new metro system, they will ensure that the elevator that comes down to the platform, that of course is used by people with mobility impairments, lines up with the carriage that is for mobility-impaired people. As somebody who’s experiencing mobility difficulties, you will come straight down, like a seamless transition straight out of the elevator, and the carriage will always be there for you."
It sounds like a small thing: an elevator opening onto the right carriage.
But small things are often the difference between independence and isolation.
Japan may not have found the secret to living to 100, but it is already wrestling with the question Australia will have to answer.
How do we make a longer life feel like a good life, rather than a life unwanted living in an unfamiliar aged care facility struggling to remember who we are, not knowing where we are.
"It's Mama here, and I've woken up in a strange place. I didn't know that I was transported here. My heart's going racing like a mad thing, and I'm just so worried that it's going to give out at any minute. But please, will you please come and get me? I don't know where I am. I need help. Please, darling. This is just a awful place. Come, come, come as soon as possible. I need you to come now."
