[vbmoneyspender]

The mystery of Japan's missing centenarians

At 111 years old, he was believed to be Japan's oldest man. His 81-year-old daughter had hidden his death and pocketed more than 9m yen ($106,000; £68,000) in pension payments, police said.

Suspicions aroused, local governments sent out teams to check on their elderly residents.

When officials visited the home of Tokyo's reputed oldest woman, Fusa Furuya, aged 113, they discovered that she had not been seen by her daughter since the 1980s.

Japan's media has delivered a day-by-day count of the missing, prompting much national hand-wringing.

One woman who - if alive - would be 125 years old, was found to have been registered as living in a park in Kobe city.

The register in Yamaguchi prefecture indicated one of its residents was alive and kicking at 186 years old.

The nationwide hunt culminated this month with the Justice Ministry reporting more than 230,000 "missing" centenarians - a revelation that sent the country, which traditionally venerates its elderly, into collective shock.

[a fool in paradise]

Well, it looks good on paper!