Word: okamura
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...life expectancy for Japanese men is 78.56 years, the fourth-longest in the world. But Mitsuru Okamura sped past that age long ago, and if you listen he'll tell you his secret: alcohol. "I enjoy drinking," says Okamura, who still has the posture of the middle school principal he once was. "Shochu, whatever. If it's alcoholic, I'll drink it." It appears to be working: At 90, the bantam-sized Okamura is still fit for his age and trim everywhere but in the ear lobes. While the other residents in the Yairo-en Special Nursing Home's gleaming...
...Nonagenarians like Okamura are hardly unusual in today's graying Japan, where 20.2% of the population is older than 65 - the world's highest proportion of that demographic. But few of Okamura's peers are as healthy as he is, and as the proportion of elderly in Japan increases - it could reach 40% by 2052 - the health care costs could be crippling. Japan's low birthrate means that the large families that once took care of aged parents as a matter of course are now rare, and overburdened Japanese households are increasingly turning to the state for help. But with...
...fears the consequences of millions of Japanese baby boomers reaching retirement age this year. "People like us in the outlying areas are suffering now," he says. "But this will be a major problem in the big cities soon. We face a difficult question." Perhaps Japan should find out what Okamura-san is drinking, and order 127 million cases...
...Botticelli and Raphael. But the focus is on Michelangelo, whose preference for bright colors is coming to light as restorers clean centuries of candle soot, grime and varnish from his frescoes. Only the lunettes above the chapel windows are finished so far, but their dazzling colors, photographed by Takashi Okamura, suggest the hue of things to come...