With Japan’s welfare system buckling under the demands of an ageing society, the world’s oldest man apologised yesterday for his longevity.

As Tomoji Tanabe, 111, received his certificate from Guinness World Records, the former engineer, who never touches alcohol, said that his feat of survival was nothing special. “I have been around too long,” he joked, “I am sorry.”

Mr Tanabe added his customary explanation of how he has managed to reach such a ripe old age: “Not drinking alcohol is the best formula for keeping myself healthy,” he said.

Other residents of his village attributed Mr Tanabe’s long life to a diet that consists chiefly of vegetables and very little fried food.

His explanation fuels a continuing mystery about the ideal formula for longevity – as each new holder of the title is crowned, each attributes his or her success to diets, lifestyles and habits that differ widely. Some have said that fresh air is the key, others have been heavy smokers. Some have taken vigorous exercise, others have sworn by periods of inactivity.

The Mayor of Miyakonojo, the village where Mr Tanabe lives with his family, presented the certificate to its famous resident after nearly five months of birthdate verification by the Guinness World Records team.

Mr Tanabe unofficially inherited the title when its previous incumbent, Emiliano Mercado del Toro, of Puerto Rico, died in January, aged 115.

The crowning of Mr Tanabe, who was born in the southern island of Kyushi in 1895, brings the coveted “double trophy” back to Japan. Yone Minagawa, who lives in the same prefecture, is 114 and holds the title of world’s oldest woman.

Japan’s population of centenarians is the largest in the world. Most of the 28,000 Japanese who have made it beyond 100 are women and the highest concentration of the very elderly is in the southern part of the archipelago. The area around Hiroshima and the island of Okinawa are especially rich in former “world’s oldest” title holders.

The number of centenarians has risen 160-fold since records began in the 1960s. Although Japan is proud of its record-breaking longevity, the success of Mr Tanabe comes as the country is running short of ideas for how to solve its ageing crisis. With the fertility rate still at record lows, government and private sector efforts to stimulate the birthrate have met with little success. As the number of children dwindles, the future welfare burden for working-age Japanese may become intolerably large.

The problem is already acute in the very rural areas where the likes of Mr Tanabe and Ms Yone have grown so old. The few children who are born in those regions move quickly to the big cities when they grow up, pushing the average age of some villages above 50.

Senior citizens

— The highest confirmed age reached by a man is 120 years, 237 days. Shigechiyo Izumi of Tokunoshima Island in Japan worked until he was 105, drank barley wine and took up smoking aged 70

— The longest confirmed lifespan on record was that of Jeanne Louise Calment of France. Aged 14 when the Eiffel Tower was built, she also met Vincent van Gogh. She died in 1997 aged 122 years, 164 days

— Fred Hale Sr of Maine, US was 113 when he died in 2004. The world's oldest holder of a valid driving licence as well as its oldest man, Hale had nonetheless stopped driving because “slow drivers annoyed him”

Sources: UCLA Gerontology Research Group; ARC Aging Research Centre; seniorjournal.com

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