Japan reaffirmed its status among some of the healthiest populations on earth after setting a new record high of centurians living in the country, as it nears 100,000 citizens aged 100 years old.

According to reports, the country’s Health Ministry announced on Friday that as of September 1, Japan had “99,763 people aged 100 or older,” with nearly 90 per cent of the centurians being women.

The new feat marks 4,644 more jumps over the previous year, as Japan extends its own record for the 55th consecutive year.

The feat of longevity adds to the tales of two stories for the Asian nation, which has also coincidentally been impacted by a severe population decline, with reports of nearly 900,000 reduction in 2024, as the birth rate continues its anaemic movement among the lowest in the world, 1.24 per woman of 124 million in 2023.

Both scenarios represent a complicated dilemma with a country simultaneously experiencing both an increasingly ageing and shrinking population. Japan’s oldest person is 114-year-old Shigeko Kagawa, who lives in the Nara region near Kyoto.