By RYUICHI HISANAGA/ Staff Writer
August 1, 2020 at 16:08 JST
Seniors enjoy ground golf with high school students in Kobe. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The average life expectancy of Japanese people is at an all-time high with women faring than men, according to the health ministry’s data for 2019 released July 31.
Women in Japan now have an average life expectancy of 87.45 years, compared with 81.41 years for men.
Both figures mark new records.
The life expectancy for women has risen for seven consecutive years. For men, the rate is the eighth year of increase in a row.
Women’s life expectancy in 2019 was 0.13 year longer than the previous record. The figure for men was 0.16 year longer than the previous record during the same period.
Improvements in treating the three major causes of death--cancer, heart failure and cerebrovascular disease--contributed to the longer life expectancy, the ministry said.
For those born in 2019, the probability of dying from one of the three diseases is 49.62 percent for men and 44.72 percent for women.
Compared with average life expectancy rates in 50 countries and regions for which the ministry collected related data, Japanese women ranked second after Hong Kong.
Japanese men came third after Hong Kong and Switzerland.
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