The Okinawa Research Center for Longevity Science (ORCLS) is a leading non-profit biomedical research institute built on the foundation of the Okinawa Centenarian Study (OCS), the most extended, continuously running study of hundred-year-olds in the world (established 1975). The support and cooperation of the local Okinawa community have been invaluable through their participation in the Okinawa Centenarian Study. Over the past several decades, OCS and its participants have made important contributions to our understanding of the ageing process and longevity.