Japan centenarian population hits record 60,000

In this Thursday, March 5, 2015 photo, Japan’s Misao Okawa who is recognized as the world’s oldest living person by Guinness World Records celebrated her 117th birthday with a birthday cake at a nursing home in Osaka, western Japan. AP

TOKYO, Japan—The number of people aged 100 and above has hit 60,000 in Japan this year, as the country faces spiralling social and health expenses to look after its legions of retirees.

The population of centenarians is expected to reach 61,568 next week, of which 87 percent will be women, the welfare ministry said Friday.

On September 15, when the country marks “Senior’s Day,” the government will give letters and commemorative gifts to the 30,379 people who turn 100 this year.

They will receive a silver sake dish that now costs the equivalent of $65, but since Japan’s ageing population is ballooning, the ministry is eyeing a cheaper alternative to the gift from next next year.

Presenting centenarians with the expensive gift was fine in the first year of the program—1963—when Tokyo gave just 153 dishes to those who passed the century mark.

But the number of 100-year-olds in Japan has boomed since, with nearly 30,000 people eligible for the annual gift in 2014, at a cost of 260 million yen ($2.1 million).

READ: World’s oldest woman turns 116 in Japan

Japanese men on average live just over 80 years, while  women boast the world’s longest life expectancy of 86.83 years.

The country is also home to the world’s oldest man, Yasutaro Koide, who turned 112 years old in March.