WIT Life #113: Centenarian crisis
Article/Journalism, Japan Trends, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life 
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Recent news coming out of Japan has surrounded unsettling discoveries regarding its elderly population. Last week it was revealed that Tokyo’s oldest listed man, who if alive would have been 111 last month, likely died over 30 years ago. According to a report on CNN this morning, currently the whereabouts of about 30 Japanese centenarians are unknown. As discussed in this coverage from Bloomberg, “the disappearance of some of Japan’s oldest citizens is raising concern that some families are bilking the nation’s pension system even as others risk being deprived of payments for the same reason — poor record keeping.” This was a big issue back in 2007 when the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare lost millions of files related to the government-led pension system.
Besides the obvious financial implications, many aspects of this story are just plain creepy. For example, the remains of the above man were found mummified in the house where he once lived with his daughter. When his wife pased away six years ago, he received about $111,000 in pension payments. By the way, the average lifespan for Japanese men and women reached a record last year, with men living an average of 79.59 years and women 86.44 years. The ministry says that Japanese women have the longest life expectancy in the world.
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