CENTENARIANS Numbers are record-high

Diet may be Japan's secret to long life, experts say.
TOKYO (AP) -- The number of Japanese who have lived 100 years or more surged to a record-high 23,038 in 2004 in the world's longest-living country, the government said Tuesday.
The Health Ministry figures reflect longer life spans in a rapidly graying nation, where more than a third of the population is expected to be age 65 or older by 2050, up from one-fifth now.
The ministry said this year's figure -- which includes all Japanese who will turn 100 by the end of September -- outstripped the record from 2003, when there were 20,561 centenarians.
In 2003, Japanese women set a new record for life expectancy -- 85.3 years. Men could expect to live 78.3 years.
In the United States, a 2002 report by the Centers for Disease Control and the National Center for Health Statistics said life expectancy for U.S. women at birth was 79.9 years, and 74.7 years for men.
Experts say a traditional fish-based, low-fat diet may be Japan's secret to long life.
Grows every year
The ranks of Japanese centenarians has swelled nearly every year since the government began keeping track in 1963, as the country's effort to modernize from defeat in World War II led to improved living standards.
The oldest Japanese person is 114-year-old Ura Koyama, who is two months younger than the Guinness Book of Records' oldest living person, Hendrikje Van Andel-Schipper of the Netherlands.
Okinawa, the southernmost chain of islands, has the highest concentration of people 100 years or older. There are 635 centenarians there, or 47 for every 100,000 people -- well above the national average of 18 per 100,000.
The equivalent figure for the United States is about 10 in 100,000.
The new data were released just before Respect for the Aged Day, which is today. It is a national holiday where each new centenarian receives a silver cup and certificate.