Taronomics (1)

Why Japan Is Aging?

This story was given in this blog before: The Japanese are among the world's longest-lived people, with the number of those aged 100 or older at a record 36,276, a government report shows.

Japanese women have topped the world's longevity ranks for 23 years, while men rank third after Iceland and Hong Kong. (Reporting by Chisa Fujioka; editing by Sophie Hardach)

The questions: why do many Japanese people live longer? What makes people live longer?

One day I watched TV and I heard of an interesting story: the Japanese people will live to be 150 years old! Really? Fantastic!

I am serious. I think so too. The reason is not due to nutrition:

When we retire, we live off a pension and it's a very important source for living.(Of course we have to pay some money every month to the pension fund beforehand.)

The trick is here: If a pensioner dies, normally his or her children should tell the death to the government, but some people do not tell. Why? Clearly, it's to receive their parents' pension! The government has no clue to know the death of the pensioner unless his or her children/ relatives tell it to them. As the government don't know the death of the pensioner, they continue to pay the pension to the dead.

According to the TV program I watched, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare confessed that most of those aged 100 or older may be already dead! They never know the correct number of those who are aged 100 or older and still alive.

Now you know the reason many Japanese people can live to be over 150. The Japanese economy is so stagnant that there are naturally a lot of people relying on their parents' pension to live a stable life. Is it a happy story? What do you think?

PS
Oh, that's an important question. Where's the dead pensioner? Dig up the backyard and you may find out the answer.