Japan's oldest person, aged 114, reveals the ‘greatest asset' of her long life
Her new status follows the death of 114-year-old Miyoko Hiroyasu, according to Japan 's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
Ms Kagawa graduated from medical school before World War II.
She served at an Osaka hospital during the conflict and later ran her family's clinic as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, retiring at 86.
Her remarkable life also saw her become one of the oldest Olympic torchbearers in history, participating in the Tokyo 2021 relay at 109.
When asked about the secret to her longevity by TOS News in 2023, Ms Kagawa simply said: "I don't have any. I just play every day. My energy is my greatest asset.
'I go where I want, eat what I want and do what I want. I'm free and independent."
Her predecessor as Japan 's oldest person led a similarly active life. Born in 1911, Ms Hiroyasu studied art in Tokyo, taught in Hiroshima Prefecture and raised three children.
She died in a nursing home in Oita Prefecture, where she spent her days reading newspapers, sketching and playing card games.
'I am grateful to be healthy,' she said on her 113th birthday.
Despite an overall population decline, Japan's elderly population continues to grow. As of 1 September 2024, a record 36 million people – 29 per cent of the population – were aged 65 or older, the highest proportion of seniors in the world.
Those aged 80 and above now make up 10 per cent of the population, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
There are 95,119 centenarians across the country.
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The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
The search for missing Hiroshima victims 80 years after atomic bombing
Eighty years ago, on 6 August, the detonation of the first atomic bomb transformed the small, rural island of Ninoshima, just south of Hiroshima, into a harrowing makeshift hospital. Thousands of dead and dying victims, transported by military boats whose crews had trained for suicide missions, were brought ashore. The scene was one of unimaginable suffering; many victims had their clothes burned off, their flesh hung from their faces and limbs, and their moans of pain filled the air. Due to poor medicine and inadequate care, only a few hundred remained alive when the field hospital closed on 25 August, according to historical records. Their burials were chaotic and rushed, with bodies interred in various locations. Decades on, the search for the remains of the missing continues, driven by a profound desire to account for and honour the victims. This ongoing effort also seeks to bring relief to survivors still tormented by memories of their lost loved ones. As Rebun Kayo, a Hiroshima University researcher who regularly visits Ninoshima to search for remains, starkly put it: "Until that happens, the war is not over for these people." Evidence of the missing is still being unearthed On a recent morning, Kayo visited a hillside plot in the forest where he has dug for remains since 2018. He put on rubber boots and a helmet and sprayed insect repellent. After planting chrysanthemum flowers and praying, Kayo carefully began shoveling gravel from a hole the size of a bathtub. When the soil was soft enough, he sifted it for bone fragments. As he worked under the scorching sun, he imagined the pain and sadness that the victims felt when they died. Kayo so far has found about 100 bone fragments, including skull pieces and an infant's jaw bone with little teeth attached. He found the bones in an area suggested by a Ninoshima resident, whose father had witnessed soldiers burying bodies that were brought to the island on boats from Hiroshima 80 years ago. 'The little child buried here has been alone for all these years,' he said of the bones he believes belonged to a toddler. 'It's just intolerable." Victims arrived in the bombing's chaotic aftermath The U.S. atomic attack on Hiroshima instantly destroyed the city and killed tens of thousands near the hypocenter, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Ninoshima. The death toll by the end of that year was 140,000. As a 3-year-old child, Tamiko Sora was with her parents and two sisters at their home just 1.4 kilometers (0.9 mile) from the hypocenter. The blast destroyed their house and Sora's face was burned, but most of her family survived. As they made their way to a relatives' home, she met an unattended five-year-old girl who identified herself as Hiroko and a woman with severe burns desperately asking people to save the baby she carried. Sora still thinks of them often and regrets her family could not help. Her family visited orphanages but could not find the girl. Sora now thinks the people she met that day, as well as her missing aunt and uncle, might have ended up on Ninoshima. Ninoshima saw 3 weeks of chaos, deaths and rushed burials Within two hours of the blast, victims began arriving by boat from Hiroshima at the island's No. 2 quarantine center. Its buildings filled with patients with severe wounds. Many died on the way to the island. Imperial Army service members were on around-the-clock shifts for cremation and burials on the island, according to Hiroshima City documents. Eiko Gishi, then an 18-year-old boat trainee, oversaw carrying patients from the pier to the quarantine area for first aid. He and other soldiers cut bamboo to make cups and trays. Many of the wounded died soon after sipping water. In recollections published by the city years later, Gishi wrote that soldiers carefully handled bodies one by one at the beginning, but were soon overwhelmed by the huge number of decomposing bodies and used an incinerator originally meant for military horses. Even this wasn't enough and they soon ran out of space, eventually putting bodies into bomb shelters and in burial mounds. 'I was speechless from the shock when I saw the first group of patients that landed on the island,' a former army medic, Yoshitaka Kohara, wrote in 1992. 'I was used to seeing many badly wounded soldiers on battlefields, but I had never seen anyone in such a cruel and tragic state," he said. 'It was an inferno.' Kohara was at the facility until its closure, when only about 500 people were left alive. When he told surviving patients that the war had ended on Aug. 15, he recalled they looked emotionless and 'tears flowed from their crushed eyes, and nobody said a word." Thousands of remains found on Ninoshima but more are still missing Kazuo Miyazaki, a Ninoshima-born historian and guide, said that toward the end of WWII the island was used to train suicide attackers using wooden boats meant for deployment in the Philippine Sea and Okinawa. 'Hiroshima was not a city of peace from the beginning. Actually, it was the opposite,' Miyazaki said. 'It's essential that you learn from the older generations and keep telling the lessons to the next.' Miyazaki, 77, lost a number of relatives in the atomic bombing. He has heard first-person stories from his relatives and neighbors about what happened on Ninoshima, which was home to a major army quarantine during Japan 's militarist expansion. His mother was an army nurse who was deployed to the field hospital on the island. The remains of about 3,000 atomic bombing victims brought to Ninoshima have been found since 1947 when many were dug out of bomb shelters. Thousands more are thought to be missing. People visit the island to remember the missing After learning of the search for remains on Ninoshima, Sora, the atomic bomb survivor struck by the girl and infant she met after the explosion, traveled to the island twice to pray at a cenotaph commemorating the dead. 'I feel they are waiting for me to visit,' Sora said. 'When I pray, I speak the names of my relatives and tell them I'm well and tell them happy stories.' In a recent visit to Sora at her nursing home, the researcher Kayo brought a plastic box containing the baby jaw with little teeth and skull fragments he found on Ninoshima. The bones were placed carefully on a bed of fluffy cotton. Kayo said he wanted to show Sora the fragile fragments, which could be from a child the same age as the one Sora met 80 years ago. He plans to eventually take the bones to a Buddhist temple. Sora prayed in silence while looking at the bones in the box and then spoke to them. 'I'm so happy you were finally found," she said. "Welcome back.'
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Japan's oldest person, aged 114, reveals the ‘greatest asset' of her long life
Shigeko Kagawa, a 114-year-old retired physician from Nara Prefecture, has been confirmed as Japan 's oldest living person. Her new status follows the death of 114-year-old Miyoko Hiroyasu, according to Japan 's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Ms Kagawa graduated from medical school before World War II. She served at an Osaka hospital during the conflict and later ran her family's clinic as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, retiring at 86. Her remarkable life also saw her become one of the oldest Olympic torchbearers in history, participating in the Tokyo 2021 relay at 109. When asked about the secret to her longevity by TOS News in 2023, Ms Kagawa simply said: "I don't have any. I just play every day. My energy is my greatest asset. 'I go where I want, eat what I want and do what I want. I'm free and independent." Her predecessor as Japan 's oldest person led a similarly active life. Born in 1911, Ms Hiroyasu studied art in Tokyo, taught in Hiroshima Prefecture and raised three children. She died in a nursing home in Oita Prefecture, where she spent her days reading newspapers, sketching and playing card games. 'I am grateful to be healthy,' she said on her 113th birthday. Despite an overall population decline, Japan's elderly population continues to grow. As of 1 September 2024, a record 36 million people – 29 per cent of the population – were aged 65 or older, the highest proportion of seniors in the world. Those aged 80 and above now make up 10 per cent of the population, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. There are 95,119 centenarians across the country.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Nutritionists warn that your matcha obsession could have this health drawback
The world has developed a thirst for matcha – a bright green Japanese drink that's sought after for its health benefits and caffeine. However, the drink of choice for many may have a downside. Not only is its popularity drying up global supplies, but drinking too much of it could contribute to an iron deficiency. Nutritionists warn the green lattes can affect iron absorption and vegetarians are at a higher risk than meat eaters. Matcha is made from the green tea plant, Camellia Sinensis, which is ground into a powder. Because it's grown in the shade the plant produces more chlorophyll, which not only gives it a deep green colour but also means it contains more nutrients. Rob Hobson, a nutritionist and author of Unprocess Your Family Life, explains the drink does have health benefits. 'It contains polyphenols which protects the body against oxidative damage. So, it helps to reduce inflammation which then helps to protect against chronic diseases,' he told the Independent. 'Because it contains caffeine it helps with mental focus. But it also contains L-theanine which helps to lessen that jittery edge that you get from caffeine,' he added. Research has also suggested these polyphenols in matcha can reduce the risk of heart disease. But the same health boosting polyphenols also make it harder for the body to absorb iron. Gunter Kuhnle, a professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Reading explained matcha tea can affect iron absorption by binding the (non-haem) iron that is found in many plant foods – such as lentils, leafy greens and tofu. 'It contains the compounds catechins and tannins – which are both polyphenols – that can bind to iron in the digestive tracts, and this stops them from being taken up by the body,' Professor Kuhnle told the Independent. 'These complexes then pass through the gut and are not useful for the body – this can reduce iron uptake by up to 50 per cent, but this varies a lot between individuals and depends on the timing of the meal and the type of food,' he added. He explained there is a similar problem with green tea because it also contains high levels of polyphenols. Although rare, in one instance a 48-year-old man became anaemic from excessive green tea consumption Professor Kuhnle said. Mr Hobson stressed that you don't need to worry if you have a balanced diet, but warned vegetarians are at a greater risk. That's because it only affects non-haem iron which is in tofu and lentils and not haem iron which is found in meat. 'If you are vegan or vegetarian and you are relying on lentils, leafy green and tofu for your iron, then you might want to avoid drinking matcha with your meals because it can inhibit iron absorption in the gut,' Mr Hobson said. He also stressed that if you are low in iron anyway and take iron supplements, you should avoid taking these at the same time as drinking a matcha. An iron deficiency, also called anaemia, can cause tiredness, shortness of breath, paler skin, headaches and heart palpitations, according to the NHS. Low iron is common among teenage girls, vegans and vegetarians with a study by Lund University in Sweden finding 38 per cent of participants who were teenage girls and 70 per cent of participants who were vegetarian or vegan, affected by the deficiency. If you want to reap the health benefits of matcha, in addition to not drinking it at mealtimes, make sure to avoid adding a lot of syrup or cream. Mr Hobson instead suggests the healthiest option is to drink it plain.
