http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/world/asia/15japan.html?_r=1&src=tptw
QuoteTOKYO — Japan has long boasted of having many of the world's oldest people — testament, many here say, to a society with a superior diet and a commitment to its elderly that is unrivaled in the West.
That was before the police found the body of a man thought to be one of Japan's oldest, at 111 years, mummified in his bed, dead for more than three decades. His daughter, now 81, hid his death to continue collecting his monthly pension payments, the police said.
Alarmed, local governments began sending teams to check on other elderly residents. What they found so far has been anything but encouraging.
A woman thought to be Tokyo's oldest, who would be 113, was last seen in the 1980s. Another woman, who would be the oldest in the world at 125, is also missing, and probably has been for a long time. When city officials tried to visit her at her registered address, they discovered that the site had been turned into a city park, in 1981.
To date, the authorities have been unable to find more than 281 Japanese who had been listed in records as 100 years old or older. Facing a growing public outcry, the country's health minister, Akira Nagatsuma, said officials would meet with every person listed as 110 or older to verify that they are alive; Tokyo officials made the same promise for the 3,000 or so residents listed as 100 and up.
So the common wisdom about Japanese people living long due isn't due to reverence for the elderly and health diets but to the fact that the Japanese like to abandon their elderly and the government doesn't bother to keep track of people. :horrormirth:
She went through the trouble of mummifying her father?
Where does one even acquire the knowledge to do that?
Their probably all just playing WOW
i love the japs!!!
I'm fairly sure there's still a fairly high life expectency in general.
Especially in Okinawa.
I agree with PD, but this is still pretty damn funny.
Quote from: Kingderp on August 19, 2010, 07:14:34 AM
She went through the trouble of mummifying her father?
Where does one even acquire the knowledge to do that?
She probably just covered him with toilet paper.
Quote from: Placid Dingo on August 19, 2010, 10:16:36 AM
I'm fairly sure there's still a fairly high life expectency in general.
Especially in Okinawa.
This is correct.