TOKYO, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- A Japanese government survey on Friday showed that the number of centenarians increased to a new record of 67,824, with the figure rising for the 47th consecutive year.
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, the overall number of centenarians rose by 2,132 from a year earlier, with women comprising 87.9 percent of the total.
The number of male centenarians stood at 8,197, rising by 30 people from the previous year, while the number of female centenarians rose to 59,627, up 2,102, the ministry said.
Currently, the country's oldest woman is 117-year-old Nabi Tajima who was born in August 1900 in Kagoshima Prefecture, in southwestern Japan.
The oldest man is 112-year-old Masazo Nonaka who hails from Hokkaido, in the north, and was born in July 1905.
In 2016, life expectancy in Japan was projected at 87.14 for women and 80.98 for men.
The ministry said the largest concentration of centenarians lived in Tokyo at 5,835 people, with neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture taking the second spot with 3,737 centenarians. Osaka Prefecture, meanwhile, has 3,559 people aged over 100 living there, the ministry's latest data showed.
People turning 100 in the current fiscal year through next March stands at just over 32,000, which is 350 more people than a year earlier, according to the ministry.
The health ministry said it expects the number of centenarians to continue to increase owing to improvements in medical technology and due to increased access to information about healthy lifestyles.
Centenarians were previously presented with cups of pure silver by the country's prime minister, but from last year the government opted to switch to silver-plated cups to cut costs, Kyodo News said.
Japan will mark Respect for the Aged Day with a national holiday on Monday.
