The figures once again highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world's fourth-largest economy as its population ages and declines.
As of September 1, there were 95,119 centenarians living in Japan, 2,980 more than the previous year. 83,958 of them were women and 11,161 were men, the health ministry said.
On Sept. 15, separate government data showed that the number of people over 65 had reached a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of Japan's population.
That proportion puts Japan first on a list of 200 countries and regions with populations over 100,000, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
Japan is currently home to the world's oldest living person, Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23, 1908, and is 116 years old, according to the U.S.-based Gerontology Research Group.
The previous record holder, Maria Brias Morera, died last month in Spain at the age of 117.
Itooka lived in a nursing home in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan, the ministry said.
She often said "thank you" to the nursing home staff and expressed nostalgia for her hometown, the ministry said.
"I have no idea what the secret of my long life is," Kiyotaka Mizuno, Japan's oldest man at 110, told local media.
Mizuno, who lives with his family in Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan, gets up every morning at 6:30 a.m. and eats three meals a day - without being picky about his food.
His hobby is listening to live sports broadcasts, including sumo, the ministry said.
Japan is facing a steadily worsening demographic crisis as a growing elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs and the workforce to cover them is shrinking.
The country's total population stands at 124 million, having fallen by 595,000 the previous year, according to previous government figures.
The government has been trying to slow the decline and aging of the population without much success, while gradually extending the retirement age - by fiscal 2025, 65 will become the rule for all employers. | BGNES
