Japanese Centenarian Record Holders [1978 - 2001]

Year	Males	% increase	Females	% increase	Total	% increase	% Male	% Female	Oldest Male [*]	Age	Oldest Female [*]	Age
1978					792				Shigechiyo Izumi	113
1979					937	18.31%			Shigechiyo Izumi	114	Koharu Kodaira	108
1980					968	3.31%			Shigechiyo Izumi	115
1981	202		870		1072	10.74%	18.84%	81.16%	Shigechiyo Izumi	116	Woto Michii,	110
1982	233	15.35%	967	11.15%	1200	11.94%	19.42%	80.58%	Shigechiyo Izumi	117
1983	269	15.45%	1085	12.20%	1354	12.83%	19.87%	80.13%	Shigechiyo Izumi	118	Momo Okuma	109
1984	347	29.00%	1216	12.07%	1563	15.44%	22.20%	77.80%	Shigechiyo Izumi	119	Ine Tsugawa	109
1985	359	3.46%	1381	13.57%	1740	11.32%	20.63%	79.37%	Shigechiyo Izumi	120	Ine Tsugawa	110
1986					1851	6.38%			Eiju Tsuru	107	Mitsu Fujisawa	110
1987	462		1809		2271	22.69%	20.34%	79.66%	Eiju Tsuru	108	Mitsu Fujisawa	111
1988	562	21.65%	2106	16.42%	2668	17.48%	21.06%	78.94%	Eiju Tsuru	109	Mitsu Fujisawa	112
1989	630	12.10%	2448	16.24%	3078	15.37%	20.47%	79.53%	Eiju Tsuru	110	Mitsu Fujisawa	113
1990	680	7.94%	2618	6.94%	3298	7.15%	20.62%	79.38%	Shimetaro Hara	108	Waka Shirahama	112
1991					3625	9.92%			Gihei Oka	108	Waka Shirahama	113
1992	822		3330		4152	14.54%	19.80%	80.20%	Gengan Tonaki	107	Tane Ikai	113
1993	943	14.72%	3859	15.89%	4802	15.66%	19.64%	80.36%	Gengan Tonaki	108	Tane Ikai	114
1994	1093	15.91%	4500	16.61%	5593	16.47%	19.54%	80.46%	Gengan Tonaki	109	Tane Ikai	115
1995	1255	14.82%	5123	13.84%	6378	14.04%	19.68%	80.32%	Gengan Tonaki	110	Sue Utagawa	111
1996	1400	11.55%	5973	16.59%	7373	15.60%	18.99%	81.01%	Gengan Tonaki	111	Sue Utagawa	112
1997	1570	12.14%	6921	15.87%	8491	15.16%	18.49%	81.51%	Denzo Ishisaki	110	Suekiku Miyanaga	113
1998	1812	15.42%	8346	20.59%	10158	19.60%	17.84%	82.16%	Denzo Ishisaki	111	Tase Matsunaga,	114
1999	1973	8.89%	9373	12.31%	11346	11.70%	17.39%	82.61%	Sadayoshi Tanabe	110	Kamato Hongo	111
2000	2158	9.38%	10878	16.06%	13036	14.90%	16.55%	83.45%	Yukichi Chuganji	111	Kamato Hongo	112
2001	2541	17.75%	12934	18.90%	15475	18.71%	16.42%	83.58%	Yukichi Chuganji	112	Kamato Hongo	113

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* Ages as of September 1, 2001

[Editor's Note: The following Notes were provided by Mr. Robert Young of Atlanta, Georgia]

Notes:

The Table above is a Summary of the Annual Japan Centenarian Report issued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. It is notable that both the number of male and female centenarians has increased for every year for which information is available.  While the percentage of male centenarians has dropped, this is due wholly to the fact that the numbers of female centenarians have risen even faster than that for males, from 870 in 1981 to 12,934 in 2001 (an increase of 1,386.7 percent).  For comparison, the male centenarian population was up from 202 in 1981 to 2,541 in 2001 (up 1,157.9 percent).  The total proportion of males declined from 18.84 percent in 1981 to 16.42 percent today.  Also included were the oldest official male and female centenarians for each year.  However, this should not be taken to mean that these are the only persons who held the "Oldest Woman/Person in Japan" or "Oldest Man" titles.  Mrs. Asa Takii was Japan's Oldest Person from June 20 to July 31, 1998, but was not the titleholder on September 1st.  Likewise, on the men's side, Mr. Eiju Tsuru died January 11, 1990 at age 110 years 11 months and was succeeded by Kiichi Fujiwara, who died March 6, 1990 at age 109.  He, in turn, was succeeded by Nisaburo Matsuyama, who died April 3, 1990 at the age of 109. Next, Dr. Shimetaro Hara, 108, was the titleholder. (We haven't found the date-of-death for Shimetaro Hara, but he was dead by the following September when Gihei Oka was the titleholder).

Notably, the Oldest Man has been at least 107, while the Oldest Woman has been at least 108 years old.  With the exception of Mr. Shigechiyo Izumi, all the titleholders for Japan's Oldest Person have been women.

While all cases listed here were accepted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Shigechiyo Izumi case is disputed by some (while doubted, this case has not been disproven either), as are Mitsu Fujisawa, Ine Tsugawa, and Sadayoshi Tanabe.  Even the Hongo case may be viewed with some skepticism, as she appears to have been born in the same town as Shigechiyo Izumi.  On the other hand, this does not mean all these cases are false; rather it means that they are not as well validated as the Madam Jeanne Calment case was (with French certificates of birth, baptism, marriage, death, census records, family-tree reconstructions, and so forth). Hopefully, the Saito report due in October will shed some further light on these uncertainties.

We are still missing information for the "male/female" breakdown for 1978, 1979, 1980, 1986, and 1991, which also implies missing Percentage-Increase data points.  If anyone can help us obtain this information, it would be greatly appreciated.