Japan is the only country with most people unhappy to live to 100, survey shows

The report released on Monday shows that the Japanese “only focus on the negative aspects of living to be 100”, with just 21 per cent saying they expect to be happy when they reach 100.

“In other countries, while there are negative aspects, such as anxiety and difficulties associated with a 100-year lifespan, people there also focus on the positive aspects,” he added.

The Japanese respondents were markedly more pessimistic when it came to other questions as well. Only a mere 28.7 per cent said that they would have new opportunities to experience things at the century mark.

In contrast, 59 per cent of Americans and 58 per cent of Chinese said they expect to be happy when they reach 100, while 65 per cent of Americans and 51 per cent of Germans anticipate having new opportunities as they grow older.

Just 27.4 per cent of Japanese said they wanted to live to be 100, compared with 52.8 per cent of Germans, 53.1 per cent of South Koreans, 58.4 per cent of Finns, 65.6 per cent of Chinese and 66.7 per cent of Americans.

The study was conducted by the Research Institute for Centenarians to mark the United Nations’ International Day of Happiness on Wednesday, with researchers quizzing 2,800 Japanese people aged between 20 and 79 about their thoughts on ageing, along with a similar number of people in the other countries.

Kanako Hosomura, a 41-year-old housewife from Yokohama, says she would be “happy to live to 100, but only if I am physically and mentally able to take care of myself.

“I do not want to have to ask other people to do things for me, even simple things, because I would be a burden on them,” she told This Week in Asia. “But if I can get around and my mind is still sound, then why not live to 100?”

Hosomura said she worries