Japanese Women Have World’s Longest Life Expectancy

From Reuters Health:

Japanese women had alife expectancy of 85.59 years in 2004, making them the world’s longestliving group for the 20th consecutive year, the government said onFriday.

Japanese men trailed with a lifeexpectancy of 78.64 years, which placed them second for longevity afterIcelandic men, who live an average of 78.8 years.

The government attributes Japaneselongevity to a range of factors, including a healthy diet and improvingmedical care, a spokeswoman for the Health Ministry said.

The Japanese diet tends to be rich in vegetables and fish products and relatively low in animal fats.

But long life expectancies combinedwith a tumbling birth rate may be storing up problems for Japan, whereone in five of the population is over 65 and the figure is expected tojump to one in four in the next decade.

Women in Hong Kong were the secondlongest living group in the world, according to Japanese governmentfigures, followed by Swiss women.

Sushi, anyone??