Kokichi Akuzawa with his daughter Yukiko (centre) and son-in-law Yuji. (Photo from the Associated Press)
TOKYO, Japan — The elderly in Japan are living longer than ever as the country’s centenarians set a new record, reaching nearly 100,000 with the latest oldest Japanese male recognized by the Guinness World Records as the oldest man to climb Mount Fuji.
At age 102, Kokichi Akuzawa almost gave up during his trek to Mount Fuji’s summit in early August but his achievement was only officially recognized this month after verification by Guinness.
“I was really tempted to give up halfway through. Reaching the summit was tough, but my friends encouraged me, and it turned out well. I managed to get through it because so many people supported me,” the experienced climber enthused after his successful climb.
Japan’s record number of people aged 100 or older was tallied with almost 90 percent of them women, data from the Japanese ministry showed. The figure underscore the demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks.
As of September the current year, Japan has listed 99,763 centenarians, up 4,644 year-on-year, with 88 percent of them women, the health ministry said in a statement. Japan’s oldest person is 114-year-old Shigeko Kagawa in the Nara region near Kyoto.
Japan is facing a steadily worsening population crisis, as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labour force to pay for it.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has called the situation a ‘quiet emergency’, pledging family-friendly measures such as more flexible working hours and free day care to try and reverse the trend. However, the government’s efforts to slow the decline and ageing of its population have yet to yield meaningful results.
Meanwhile, Guinness announced that to date, the world’s oldest person is British woman Ethel Caterham, who turned 116 in August, months after the title passed to her following the death of Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas.
