About a week ago, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan announced that the average life expectancy of Japanese women was 86.44 years old and that of Japanese men was 79.59 years old in 2009. The average life expectancies of both men and women reached the record high consecutively for the last four years. The average for women has ranked top for the last 25 years in the world. Right after that announcement, it was reported that a 113-year-old woman who is the oldest in Tokyo was missing. She doesn't live where the resident registry data shows that she is supposed to be living. It turns out that 34 people over 100 are missing throughout Japan. These incidences reveal our social problems. It's a sad fact that nobody, including their children, know where such elderly people are. However, given the current social situation, it can happen.
I have a lot of relatives and longevity runs in those on my mother's side. My great-grandparents on my grandmother's side enjoyed their lives for over 100 years. Since both of them died of old age without struggling with diseases, I would say that they literally enjoyed their lives. Ironically, before my great-grandmother passed away, her daughter (my grandmother) started suffering from dementia of the Alzheimer type. A 92-year-old female relative still enjoys playing mahjong with her friends every day. According to her granddaughter, every time I lived in a foreign country, she tried to get to know about the country well. Actually, her strong curiosity often astonishes younger people. In contrast, some elderly relatives are so selfish and persistent that their families, friends, et cetera have a hard time taking care of them. As a result, their peers tend to drift away from them.
Every time I see these situations, I realize that your last life stage reflects how you have led your life, although some diseases are beyond your control.
