With the highest life expectancy rates in the world; 85.3 years for women, and 78.3 years for men, it is no surprise to find the world's oldest man and woman living in Japan.

Yone Minagawa, who was 114 on 4th January 2007, lives in Fukuoka Prefecture in southern Japan, and is officially the world's oldest person. She has a daughter, seven grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the world's oldest man is Tomoji Tanabe, who is 111 and lives in Miyazaki Prefecture.

A government report in September 2006, announced that the number of centenarians in Japan was soon expected to reach 28,000, a nearly four-fold rise from 7,373 in 1996.

UN projections expect that there will be one million centenarians in Japan by 2050, the largest group in the world.