Live Longer, Live Better

Japan has more than 36,000 centenarians — that’s about 61 per 100,000 people. In the United States, the rate is about 10 centenarians per 100,000. So what’s the secret to living longer and better?

Christ is risen!

Christ is risen indeed!

The apostle Paul declares in our text that Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee of our own. Because he lives, we live. But how long will we live?

Let’s put that in perspective by looking for a few moments at how long we might expect to live in these temporal bodies. If you live in Japan, there’s a good chance you could live well past the age of 100.

There’s an old saying in Japan: “Old people are everybody’s treasures.” If that’s the case, and it should be, then Japan is one of the richest countries in the world — cars and electronics notwithstanding.

A 2008 survey revealed that Japan has more centenarians than any country in the world with 36,000 citizens aged 100 or older. That’s a huge increase from 1963, the first year the country started recording the number, when there were only 153 people in the centenarian category. Eighty-six percent of Japan’s current century-club members are women, with the oldest woman in the country being a...