BMC Public Health 2005, 5:65 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/5/65 (a) Hokkaido Kyushu Shikoku Osaka city Tokyo Nagoya city 0 100 200 Kilometers (b) HE65 (years), men 13.13 - 15.07 - 15.40 - 15.66 - 15.94 - 17.39 FMiagpuprineg1of health expectancy for men Mapping of health expectancy for men. Map of Japan (a) and health expectancy at 65 years (HE65) of men by municipality (b). Municipalities (N = 3361) are classified into quintiles according to HE65, and are colored accordingly. by the formula calculated from prefectural data was 0.976 for men and 0.956 for women. Municipal LE65 was drawn from the municipal life-table in 2000, using the number of deaths during 1999–2001 and the 2000 census population, and the empirical Baye- sian method was applied [24]. The number of those certif- icated as needing nursing care for LTCI by insurance union in May, 2002, was obtained from the database pub- lished by the Welfare and Medical Statistical Agency [25]. SCR was calculated using the municipal population and the age-specific certification rates of the national data from the All-Japan Federation of National Health Insur- ance Organizations, in which the age categories were 65– Page 3 of 9 (page number not for citation purposes)