In 1963, when Japan began counting, the government found 153 people aged 100 or older. As of September 1, 2026, the number is 107,677.
The Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry said the figure is up 7,914 from a year earlier and is the first time the total has passed 100,000. It has risen every year since that first survey. The count crossed 1,000 in 1981, 10,000 in 1998 and 50,000 in 2012.
Women make up the overwhelming majority: 94,298 of them, or 87.6 percent. The oldest woman in the country is Fuyo Kishimoto, 114, of Kyoto. The oldest man is Hikaru Kato, 112, of Kumamoto. Average life expectancy in 2025 was 87.33 years for women and 81.35 for men.
Health Minister Kenichiro Ueno said the number of people staying active and healthy into old age reflects progress in medicine and technology. He also pointed to the strain that demographic change puts on the country.
The other half of the picture
The same figures sit beside a falling population. Japan’s fertility rate dropped to a record-low 1.14 in 2025, well short of the roughly 2.1 needed to replace a population without migration. The population peaked at about 128 million in 2008, and the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research expects about 87 million by 2070. Numbers fell in 45 of Japan’s 47 prefectures in 2025.
People 65 and older already account for about 30 percent of residents, a share projected to approach 40 percent by 2070.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has called the decline a “quiet emergency.” Government incentives to encourage childbirth have not turned it around so far. Experts point to lower marriage rates, the cost of raising children and changing patterns of work and family life.
The squeeze is plain enough. More older people means more demand for healthcare, pensions and long-term care, while a smaller workforce strains tax revenue, labor supply and growth.
A caution on the record
Japan’s centenarian numbers have drawn scrutiny before. A government audit of family registries in 2010 found more than 230,000 people listed as 100 or older who could not be accounted for or were believed to have died years earlier. Officials blamed weak recordkeeping, though some cases raised concerns that families hid deaths to keep collecting pension payments.
The new figures come out ahead of the “Respect for the Aged” holiday, when the government traditionally sends letters and commemorative gifts to people turning 100.
