Japan's women toast their own health as life expectancy rises again

Now living to an average of 86.4, Japanese women say longevity down to a fishy diet, exercise and sleep.

Eriko Maeda could be forgiven for succumbing to occasional thoughts about her own mortality. But even as she prepares to turn 70, she has every reason to expect she'll be around for at least another two decades.

Aside from an exemplary low-fat diet and regular exercise, she has one other important factor on her side in the longevity stakes: her nationality.

Japanese women have enjoyed the longest life expectancy in the world for a quarter of a century, according to government figures. In 2009, they could expect to live, on average, a record 86.4 years – up almost five months from the previous year – followed by women in Hong Kong and France.

Japanese men, meanwhile, added almost four months to their life expectancy to 79:5 years, although they fell from fourth to fifth place in the global rankings behind Qatar, Hong Kong, Iceland and Switzerland.

Experts attribute Japan's extraordinary longevity statistics to a traditional diet of fish, rice and simmered vegetables, easy access to healthcare and a comparatively high standard of living in old age.

If Maeda is typical, then Japanese women will continue to outlive the rest of us. "I never eat meat and avoid fried food ... with the occasional exception," she says as she nods, a little guiltily, at her lunch of rice and a pair of tempura prawns.

"I eat lots of oily fish, like mackerel and sardines, I've never smoked and I hardly ever drink," she adds between mouthfuls at a restaurant in the elderly shopping and entertainment neighborhood of Sugamo, in Tokyo.

Diet aside, Maeda, who lives with her son and his family, attributes her impeccable health, and the prospect of easily outliving her male peers, to a lifestyle that would shame people at least 30 years her junior.

"I get up at 4:30, do the washing and the rest of the housework," she says. "I make a Japanese-style dinner for me and usually something western for my son's family, and I'm in bed well before 9 pm."

In contrast, Sachiko Yasuhara is almost blase about her diet and confesses to being a regular sake drinker. Yet at 81, she is the picture of health as she shrugs off Tokyo's stifling humidity and sips – of all things – a Coke outside McDonald's.

"I eat just about anything, but I draw the line at western food," she says, adding that regular exercise comes in the form of outings with friends in Sugamo.

According to the health ministry, the upward trend in life expectancy is largely down to improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, cardiac disorders and strokes, Japan's three biggest killers.

Takao Suzuki, general director of the National Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology in Nagoya, believes that Japan's almost perfect literacy rate is also a factor. "Older people are able to consume a huge amount of health and lifestyle advice in the media," he says.

"Although women live longer, they experience longer periods of ill-health than men before they die because they lose bone and muscle strength more easily than men. If the government addresses that problem, Japanese women will live even longer."

The health of Japan's seniors is not without risks. If left unaddressed, the greying of the population combined with the low birth rate will lead to a pension crisis, ballooning healthcare costs and a labour shortage that could endanger Japan's economic status.

"I can see why people like me might be a problem in the future," Yasuhara says. "Look around you; there are too many old people in Japan. We need more children."
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