100 and counting

TOKYO -- Even at 103, Kura Ikeba still fusses over what to wear when she goes out, and she loves a good steak smeared with garlic. Her only regret is having to retire from her job as a seamstress -- four years ago at age 99.

"I still have dreams about sewing kimonos, but I can't anymore," Ikeba said recently in the home in Tokyo where she lives with her 78-year-old daughter.

Ikeba was born in 1901, but hers is the face of Japan's future. The country boasts both the world's longest average life expectancy -- 81.9 years -- and has 23,000 people aged 100 or more.

The United States is still ahead. With roughly twice Japan's total population, it had 50,454 centenarians in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The bureau estimated that number would increase to 71,000 by this year.

But what's surprising in Japan's case is that its centenarian population has doubled in just five years, and will reach nearly 1 million -- the world's largest -- by 2050, according to U.N. projections.

Right now, those making it into their second century with their faculties intact can expect another prize: celebrity status.

Starting with a letter from the prime minister and a silver cup on Respect for the Aged Day in September, active oldsters are increasingly strutting their stuff on TV talk shows and in magazine articles.

Keizo Miura, for example, made headlines in 2003 at 99 after skiing down the famed Mont Blanc's Vallee Blanche. He's now 101 and still skiing. His son Yuichiro, at 70, became the oldest person to scale Mt. Everest.

Reflecting their growing presence in society, public broadcaster NHK has run a weekly program since 2002 featuring ordinary, active centenarians from all over Japan.

"There are many programs about aging society such as nursing care and financial matters," said producer Fumito Kondo. "But we thought there should be at least one program that illustrates aging society positively."

Japan's centenarians make the country a living laboratory for studying why a small percentage get past 100 -- and why an even smaller percentage stay healthy.

Nobuyoshi Hirose heads a group studying hundreds of centenarians in search of reasons for what he says is a widening gap between the fit and the bedridden.

"What surprises us is that just in five or six years, the number of active centenarians has increased tremendously," said Hirose, an assistant professor at Keio University School of Medicine who is working with the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.

"There used to be many who were bedridden or spoke incoherently," he said. "But now, we see more people being self-reliant and playing the piano."

Advanced medicine is one reason, but no guarantee survivors will be in tiptop shape at 100.

Hirose found that only 15 percent of about 180 centenarians he surveyed in Tokyo could move at will and were free of hearing and vision problems and dementia. He said a positive outlook on life was a common factor among the 100-plus population.

Ikeba, who has three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, is one of the lucky few.

Takeko Nomoto, one of her two daughters, said Ikeba sleeps longer than before, does not go out of the house much, and forgets things sometimes. But she is pretty much on her own and only needs help when taking a bath.

Ikeba says she takes no medication.

"I eat pretty much everything, but nothing too tough," she said. "I prefer meat."

Costs of aging

The downside of an aging society is well-known in Japan.

The ballooning costs of the country's compulsory pension system for elderly care, which was launched in 2000, have been under review. Families are carrying their share of the burden as well: one in two people who take care of ill family members are themselves 60 or over, according to a Health Ministry survey.

Ikeba, however, claims not to be a drain on the health system.

"Sometimes I have pain somewhere but it goes away quickly," said the centenarian. "I don't like doctors."