Japan’s Okinawa loses longevity crown as slow living makes way for faster, shorter future
Okinawan men fell from first to 43rd while women slipped to 16th in the last life expectancy survey, a slide that is expected to continue
Today, that longevity has been turned on its head. Life expectancy for both Okinawan men and women is expected to tumble again when the results of a new study, conducted every five years, are released in the coming months.
In the last study, for 2020, Okinawan men were in 43rd position for longevity among Japan’s 47 prefectures, a sharp decline from first place in 1985. By contrast, the longest life expectancy for men was recorded in Shiga, a largely rural prefecture east of Kyoto, near Lake Biwa.
Okinawan women, who had topped the national longevity charts on seven occasions between 1975 and 2005, also saw their standing fall sharply. By 2020, they had slipped out of the top 10 for the first time since records began in 1965 and were languishing in 16th place, well behind Okayama, a prefecture on Japan’s western main island of Honshu, which ranked first for women.
Older Okinawans blame the decline on a range of changes in the community and fear that the prefecture is unlikely to regain its former status.