Japan Times : Japanese women outlive everyone
The life span of Japanese women, already the longest in the world, grew to an average 85.33 years in 2003.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's 2003 "abridged life tables," released Friday, show the average life expectancy of Japanese women grew 0.10 year from a year earlier, extending the record for the longest average life span into the 19th consecutive year.Japanese men also set a new record. Their average life expectancy was an average 78.36 years in 2003, up 0.04 year.
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But worldwide, Japanese men rank third after their counterparts in Iceland, whose life expectancy was 78.7 years between 2001 and 2003, and in Hong Kong, where the average male life span was 78.6 years in 2002.I think that Japan's long life expectancy, is due to the following :Reflecting the fact that a record 23,377 men committed suicide in the reporting year, the figures show the difference between Japanese men and women widened by 0.06 year to mark an all-time high of 6.97 years.
1) healthier diet and relatively mild climate (except maybe winters in the North)
2) Japanese people do not worry much about anything else than money and security, and as for most people this is usually less a problem than anywhere else in the world, Japanese should be more relaxed. The important is that most Japanese do not care/worry about politics, religion, strict morals or the philosophical meaning of life - so from this point of view they are very relaxed.
The collectivist mentality also allows for more peace of mind, as they don't have to worry about being different, better than average or express their individuality. They can just be happy by doing the same as everybody. Feeling part of the group also certainly help them being stronger and more balanced psychologically. It is also still very common for several generations of Japanese to live under the same roof, and so elderly people do not suffer from solitude or hardships as much as in Western countries, where they usually live by themselves. This certainly has a huge impact on life expectancy, since psychology is as important physical health or diet.
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