"The oldest person in Japan dies at age 113"

Last week, Japan’s oldest person died at the age of 113 years old.
Kaku Yamanaka, died of natural causes in a hospital in Yatomi, Aichi Prefecture.

Born on December 11, 1894, Yamanaka became Japan's oldest living person at 113 years and two months when Tsuneyo Toyonaga, 113 and 9 months, died in February this year.

According to the Nikkei, she told facility officials and others that drinking a nutrition-supplement drink every day was the secret of her longevity.

Now, an anonymous woman in Okinawa has become the oldest person in Japan at 112.

Japan has one of the world’s average longest life spans, thought to be thanks to the healthy traditional Japanese diet. In 2006, Japanese women set a new world record with a life expectancy of 85.81 years while men were expected to live for 79 years.

According to The Mainichi Shimbun, “the number of Japanese living beyond 100 has almost quadrupled over the past 10 years. There were 32,295 centenarians in 2007, according to the Health Ministry.”

The Japan Times reports that “The most likely cause of death for both Japanese males and females born in 2005 will be cancer, according to the data. Some 56.3 % of men and 54.2 % of women born that year may die from cancer, heart disease, or stroke.”
According to the article, “If those three causes of death are eliminated by medical advances, the average for Japanese men will rise 8.49 years to 87.02 years and that for women will rise 7.68 years to 93.17 years.”

The Japan Times: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060726a2.html
The Mainichi Online: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080405p2a00m0na032000c.html