Women continue to outlive men. The Japanese Health Ministry reported that women accounted for 81 percent of the record 6,409 people reaching their centennial this year and about 83 percent of the 11,346 Japanese age 100 or older are women. The average life expectancy in Japan is 84 years for women and 77 years for men, making the Japanese the longest living population in the world since 1986, according to the ministry's National Institute of Population and Social Security. In the United States, on average, women live to age 79 and men live to 73. Healthy Diet with less salt Japanese tend to live long because of a relatively healthy diet, said Shigeo Takahashi, head of the institute's department of population dynamics research.
Cancer is the top cause of death in Japan, followed by stroke and heart disease.
High salt intake has been a problem in the past, but is declining, pushing up life expectancy.