SHIOJIRI, Nagano Prefecture--Even at 103, Yumi Nakano never skips brushing his teeth for minutes after every meal and using an interdental brush for a careful finish.

The centenarian resident of this central Japan city owes his daily devotion to dental care for saving his life more than 70 years ago in the aftermath of World War II.

Nakano continued to brush his teeth carefully in captivity in a labor camp in Siberia, where the mercury fell to nearly 40 degrees below freezing in the dead of winter. He said he did so “to survive.”

The internees were served hard blocks of black bread and soup containing tough pieces of meat of an unknown type. Nakano said he survived the harsh internment life because his strong and healthy teeth allowed him to chew the bread and the meat.

Apart from wisdom teeth, a grown adult has 28 permanent teeth, of which Nakano still retains 25.

Records of the Shiojiri city government’s longevity division show that elderly citizens who used the city’s home dental care services between 2020 and 2022 retained an average of 13.4 teeth for those in their 80s and an average of only 9.7 teeth for ninetysomethings.

Parties including the Enchiku dental association, which organizes local dentists, on Oct. 19 commended 25 elderly citizens, aged 90 or older, who retained at least 20 teeth. Nakano was the oldest of the award recipients.

“It is miraculously rare for a man over 100, who is a war veteran in addition, to retain so many teeth,” said Yasunobu Hosokawa, head of the dental association.

JOY IN BRUSHING TEETH, EATING 

Nakano was born and raised in Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture.

He has never failed to brush his teeth, either in the internment camp or back in his hometown. Nakano has had only one decayed tooth in his life, when he was a boy.

He had never visited a dentist for more than 20 years until he had his teeth cleaned of tartar two years ago.

He still is proud of his teeth that he utilizes to crunch on an apple without peeling its skin.

Born in 1920, Nakano found employment with the former Japanese National Railways after he graduated from high school.

He was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army at the age of 21 and was sent overseas to the former Manchukuo, Japan’s puppet state in today’s northeastern China, to build and maintain railroad tracks there.

After Japan’s defeat in the war, Nakano was incarcerated in a Siberian labor camp, where he was assigned to work at a plant for repairing locomotives. He took care of his teeth with a determination to preserve them to survive the harsh experience.

He was 30 when he was finally repatriated.

“I returned to my hometown to take over my family farm, because my older brother and younger brother, both of whom served in the military, had been killed in action,” he said.

Nakano’s daily habit of brushing his teeth allowed him to pursue his love of eating.

“I found joy, as early as in childhood, in eating everything without picking or choosing,” he said.

Upon returning home from his internment in Siberia, Nakano grew grapes, leaf tobacco, vegetables, rice and other crops. He did farmwork almost every day until he suffered an acute myocardial infarction at the age of 96.

After he lost his 85-year-old wife Take in 2003, Nakano cooked for himself until he was 97. He began going to a day care center two days a week only two years ago, when he was past 100, after he realized that he was losing the use of his legs.

LONGEVITY, HEALTHY TEETH RUN IN THE FAMILY

Nakano’s practice of eating a nutritionally balanced diet, which he chews carefully, and continuously exercising, including doing his farmwork, provided preventive measures against frailty, a condition of reduced muscular power and reduced physical and mental vitality.

Akemi, Nakano’s second son’s wife who lives in a separate building at his home, now cooks for her father-in-law.

“He complains of ‘no texture’ when I serve him soft food, such as tofu,” she said with a wry smile.

Nakano eats rice crackers, “karinto” sugar-coated stick cookies, deep-fried fish bones and other snacks between meals every day, and he chews them well with his teeth. He even has no trouble at all eating dried squid, Akemi added.

Nakano said all his three children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild have strong and healthy teeth. Nakano’s father did not have to wear false teeth during his 82-year lifetime and Nakano’s two older sisters lived to be 101 and 95, respectively.

“I am grateful that I was born in a family of long-lived people with healthy teeth,” Nakano said.

“I would be disheartened if my teeth were to come out,” he added and confided he has a goal.

“I wish to continue crunching on an entire apple, skin and all, with my own teeth for 10 more years,” Nakano said.