MANY in Japan were taken aback recently by the news that, for the first time since 1985, Japanese women have lost their crown as the world's longest-living people-their average life expectancy fell to 85.9 years in 2011, just under a year less than the women of Hong Kong. People were even more crestfallen-at the news that this was largely caused by the death toll from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in north-eastern Japan. It was a reminder of hosir disproportionately the disaster had hit the elderly in this ageing cor-ner of the planet.
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