Japan’s 100+ club: Can Indi­ans fol­low suit?

While the world stud­ies Japan’s age­ing pop­u­la­tion, health experts point to something sim­pler: every­day habits that may quietly help people live past 100

Japan has just crossed a land­mark. Accord­ing to stat­ist­ics from the coun­try’s Health and Wel­fare Min­istry, the nation is now home to 1,07,677 cen­ten­ari­ans (people aged 100 or older), exceed­ing the 1,00,000 mark for the first time in recor­ded his­tory, with women mak­ing up nearly 88% of the total.

It’s easy to credit green tea and fresh fish, but Japan­ese approach to life is shaped by mind­ful philo­sophies (Photo: Adobe Stock)

Fuyo Kishimoto from Kyoto, at 114, is the old­est liv­ing woman in the coun­try, and 112-year-old Hikaru Kato from Kum­amoto is the old­est man.

While the world stud­ies Japan’s age­ing pop­u­la­tion, health experts point to something sim­pler: every­day habits that may quietly help people live past 100.

Healthspan over lifespan: The cultural shift

We often obsess over liv­ing longer, but experts say we should focus on health­span instead. Hol­istic life­style coach Luke Coutinho says, “US and West­ern cul­tures focus on longev­ity, which is a poor word to meas­ure what needs to be done. Japan chases health­span, which nat­ur­ally trans­forms into lifespan.”

He notes that unlike mod­ern West­ern fit­ness trends, the Japan­ese don’t shy away from car­bo­hydrates. He shares, “Their carbs are pretty high, from sweet pota­toes to great qual­ity rice but they are extremely act­ive. From walk­ing and garden­ing to clean­ing, move­ment is built into daily life. They rely more on NEAT (Non-Exer­cise Activ­ity Ther­mo­gen­esis) and every­day move­ment than heavy gym workouts.”

Japanese longevity hacks

It’s easy to credit green tea and fresh fish, but Japan­ese approach to life is shaped by mind­ful philo­sophies:

• Hara Hachi Bu: Stop eat­ing when you’re about 80% full to avoid over­eat­ing and meta­bolic strain.
• Ichiju San­sai: ‘One soup, three sides’ served in small dishes to encour­age por­tion con­trol and vari­ety.
• Iki­gai: Cul­tiv­at­ing a clear reason to wake up each morn­ing, which drastic­ally reduces chronic stress. Moai: Form­ing tight-knit, lifelong social sup­port groups that offer emo­tional secur­ity as you age.
• Osoji: Treat­ing daily house chores and phys­ical labour as delib­er­ate, light phys­ical activ­ity that main­tains mobil­ity into late adult­hood.
• Shin­rin-yoku (Forest bathing): Immers­ing your­self in nature to reduce stress and sup­port over­all well-being.

Can we replicate it in India?

Before repla­cing your staple home-cooked food with sushi and matcha, longev­ity spe­cial­ists sug­gest a real­ity check.“For Indi­ans, this does not mean repla­cing our dal­roti with Japan­ese food,” says longev­ity spe­cial­ist Dr Arpit Bansal. “Our tra­di­tional diets already con­tain many foods that sup­port healthy age­ing: pulses, veget­ables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and fer­men­ted foods like curd.” The focus, he says, should be on vari­ety, sens­ible por­tions, and lim­it­ing ultra-pro­cessed foods.

Phys­ical activ­ity needn’t mean intense workouts. He adds, “Walk­ing, house­hold chores, and avoid­ing long sit­ting spells main­tain mobil­ity and muscle strength. Equally crit­ical is pre­vent­ive health­care. In India, we often seek med­ical atten­tion only after symp­toms become dif­fi­cult to ignore. A longev­ity approach means reg­u­lar health checks and catch­ing risk factors like high blood pres­sure early.”