Okinawa as”blue zone”

[nedkelly]

Much ado is made about longevity and healthy living in Okinawa . As a frequent visitor to Okinawa, I cannot see any evidence for this. Maybe the statistics represent people in the outer islands who lead a traditional lifestyle. However from what I have seen on my travels Okinawans have an even less healthy lifestyle than other Japanese. Lots of fried foods, oily yakiniku and lots of beer. I have seen no evidence of diets supposedly rich in sweet potatoes. There are some nice washoku restaurants but there are even more food courts serving fast food. Public transport is inferior to the rest of Japan so Okinawa is a car-based society which means people walk less. I don't wish to seem negative because Okinawa is a beautiful place with nice people but I can't help being sceptical about this lifestyle/longevity story. Have I missed something?

 

[mdchachi]

Rumor has it that they've been falsifying the records.

Post in thread 'Project on Okinawa'

2 Oct 2024

There was a very recent news report suggesting that Okinawa seemed to have so many centenarians because they weren't reporting deaths accurately. So people who were actually dead stayed on the social security rosters, and were being counted as 100+.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/26/the-secret-of-blue-zones-where-people-reach-100-fake-data-says-academic

An older one (behind paywall)

Places claiming to be centenarian hotspots may just have bad data

Adopting birth certificates appears to cut the lifespans of the very old

www.economist.com

• Majestic

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[Ukigumo]

There was a programme about this on the BBC. Rather than falsifying them, it seems they just kept very poor records.

When my father was taking a patient's history as a Junior doctor in India in the early 60s he'd ask their age/date of birth. They'd rub their chin, elevate their eyes and say, "there was a spell of very heavy rain back when we had that orange moon…do you remember? Well, I was born a few weeks before that"!

 

[mdchachi]

it seems they just kept very poor records.

And that makes them falsified.

 

[thomas]

And that makes them falsified.

I always thought "falsification" meant deliberately changing something to mislead, but @mdchachi is right: it also refers to proving something to be wrong.

Here are Japan's true "blue zones: (from the other thread):

Post in thread 'Project on Okinawa'

2 Oct 2024

Here's more Okinawa blue hole myth-busting:

• thomas

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[mdchachi]

I always thought "falsification" meant deliberately changing something to mislead, but @mdchachi is right: it also refers to proving something to be wrong.

I didn't think I was right, I just didn't want to admit I was wrong.

 

[Ukigumo]

I didn't think I was right, I just didn't want to admit I was wrong.

It's not being wrong, it's 'deferred exactitude'.