Japānā simtgadnieku skaits pārsniedz 60 000

Sogen Kato was born on July 22, 1899, and died at the age of 81 in 1980. But Mr Kato's family failed to tell anyone and kept his mummified body in his bed. When officials tried to check up on him, family members repeatedly chased them away Unable to congratulate him on turning 111, and needing to update their list of centenarians ahead of 'Respect For The Elderly Day' in September, they finally called in police. When officers forced their way into the family home in Adachi ward - one of Tokyo's busiest commuter districts - on Wednesday, they found his mummified skeletal remains, wearing underwear and pyjamas and covered with a blanket. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298876/Tokyos-oldest-man-Sogen-Kato-dead-30-years.html#ixzz3lR7h6bwU

But a recent headcount of the nation’s 40,399 centenarians has turned up another intriguing explanation for how so many Japanese manage to hang on to life. [Cue: “Law & Order” thunk-thunk...] They’re dead! So far, more than 200 centenarians are “missing,” according to BBC News, including the 125-years-young gal whose reported address “was turned into a park in 1981.” Apparently, the nation’s generous welfare system might be leading the children of these codgers to conceal their deaths, sometimes for years, in order to cash in on government payents. http://observer.com/2010/08/revealed-the-secret-of-japanese-longevity/