It is an odd title, since the article concludes we don’t know why the Japanese tend to live longer. My guess will be “genetics”...
But with the birth rate they have they’ll soon be extinct.
Quite a few African Americans (especially women) live long lives too.
It is very common in Japan to conceal facts of deaths of elderly relatives to defraud government and keep collecting their benefits. It might have contributed to their health statistics to some degree.
On the other hand I wouldn’t discard ‘Japanese diet’ as well. The most popular cause of death is a heart disease and Japanese food is certainly less stressful for heart than diets of people from countries which aren’t known for long lives of their nationals.
THEY WALK!!
Anyone that has ever been there can tell you how much walking you’ll do. The train system is the primary means of travel so even if you travel a fair distance using them you must still walk to/from the stations and getting to your final destination. Taxi’s are *very* expensive.
Tokyo is built upward, not outward like the USA. One of the consequences of having so much land in this country is that we’re very spread apart, even a grocery store requires a drive for most. This all results with very little walking. Now we even shop online, rarely going to malls - which at least got us walking around.
Walking...it’s the best exercise you can do.
The culture. Find out more about the culture before attributing it to the cuisine.
When I started, the working hours were considerably longer than what we did in America, to the tune of 200 to 300 hours per year. You'd commonly come to work on a Saturday if there was a public holiday during the week.
When I left, the working hours were nearly identical. You can divide the number given in the article by 52 weeks to prove it. In general, the work was far less stressful than here. Yeah, you worked longer hours during the week, but the abundance of paid public holidays more than compensated.
Everyone worked at a fairly even and dependable pace. Fewer super stars, but also a lot less deadwood you had to support because there is no such thing as minority, gender, trans-gender privilege etc. in Japan.
Since work is such a large part of life, less stress in work means less stress in life.
Diet obviously plays a role as does exercise-- you get a lot more of it walking or biking to the local train station than you'll get driving door to door here
Is it the radiation from Nagasaki and Fukushima, or the mercury from all of that seafood, or both? Hmmm......
Oh - geishas - they cater to your every whim. They’re shy at first, but they’re quite skilled at conversation. They can discuss anything from world affairs to the fine art of fishing - or baking.
Ironically, The Japanese also have one of the most highest smoking rates in the work.
All the sodium in their food keeps them well preserved. < /s >
P!