The Secrets to a Long Life - Okinawa, Japan

Fumiyasu Yamakawa, a citizen of Okinawa, cannot imagine his life without sport. This 93-year-old Japanese man runs marathons, practices swimming and gymnastics. His signature exercise is a headstand. Yohiya Shiga is 7 years older than Yamakawa. She dedicates all her free time to her hobby. This 100-year-old lady loves karaoke. Yoshi Yogi has been doing martial arts since he was a child. In his 80s, he is one of the most sought-after teachers of martial arts on the island. What is the secret of these phenomenal people? Why did their biological clock slow down? A team of Russian researchers traveled around the world in order to find answers to these questions. Here's a boat for my grandson. And this one's mine. It's lighter than the others. The aim of this expedition is to visit unique places where people live longer. Without realizing it, the longest living people in these areas have already discovered the secret of a long and active life. I'm lucky I met two healthy centenarians. According to the examples set by the oldest representatives of the humankind, we will try to determine an optimal formula for longevity. The set of rules of a centenarian. Japan. This enigmatic country has been cut off from the rest of the world for centuries. It's only in the 19th century that the Iron Curtain was raised. In the 21st century, Japan has become the birthplace of the economic miracle. Modern Japan has other marvels on display too. First citizens boast the highest rates of longevity on the planet. Their average lifespan is over 82 years. Tropical Okinawa has contributed a lot to this achievement. This southernmost island of Japan holds the world record for the highest number of super centenarians. I am Oleg Gusev. I am a biologist. I am 35 years old. Russian researcher Oleg Gusev knows a few longest living people personally. All his grandmothers and grandfathers are over 90 years old. His first encounter with a centenarian took place at a surprising location. This single-storied building is the center for social life of the Mibaru village. Its doors are always open to the villagers. Today, the oldest villager of this fisherman's village is singing here. I am Johanna Shige. I am 100 years old. The population of Mibaru is about 200 people. When this woman was born, there were no more than 30 villagers. It wasn't easy. My grandfather was a fisherman. Whatever he caught that day, my grandmother and I took to sell at the market. Each day, we were going to the market loaded with baskets of fish. I am surprised that my legs still function well. We didn't have plumbing for water before, so I carried water home from school and helped my parents in the garden. I still do all the household chores myself. Johanna has been connected to the sea her entire life. Her house is located literally within a minute's walk from the shore. She spends most of her free time on the beach. I walk along the beach every day. I prefer to walk barefoot. Even if it rains, I go out for a walk. My neighbors and I often come together here. We sit on the sand and chat. In order to live a long life, you have to treat everyone well, to communicate with people, have a lot of friends. I am only alone when I eat. The first thing that struck me was that on meeting complete strangers, our heroine was completely open and welcoming and invited us to her house straight away. Having lived in Japan for quite a while, I know that the Japanese are rather reserved people. Okinawa is different though. Sunny Okinawa is not a typical Japanese region. For 450 years, it was an independent state, the Ryukyu Kingdom, which had its own laws, customs, traditions, and language. It only became a Japanese prefecture in 1872. The Okinawa of today is one of the smallest prefectures of the Land of the Rising Sun and the only place in the country where it never snows. When the sea is calm, I go out to the sea with my neighbor. I can paddle myself still. To be honest, I don't really like fishing. But I do enjoy collecting seashells. It's very interesting. When the tide is low, I always do that. I think this woman is very strong, physically and spiritually. We went to the beach together. She showed me her boat and we lifted it up together. It weighs about 30 kilograms. And the old lady lifted it up with ease. The theme of being helpless or having limitations was never raised during our conversations. It felt as if her life, in terms of what she can really do, has not changed much in the last, say, 30 to 50 years. Okinawa is one of the few places on Earth where centenarians have been studied since the 1970s. The pioneer of this research still works on the island. I'm Makoto Suzuki. I'm a professor emeritus at the University of the Ryukyus. I'm now 81 years old. Makoto Suzuki arrived in Okinawa in 1972. The objective of the cardiologist was to improve the local health care system. Almost immediately, the doctor from the capital encountered an unexpected problem. Most of the elderly inhabitants in this location did not need any health care, even if they were 100 years old. I asked the kamasan, that is the name of our centenarian, that this woman is very healthy. I looked at it. But he was holding a big basket in his back. Please follow me. That's what I understood. We followed her. We went into her house and went up to the floor. Again, he asked, where is the kamasan? She said, that's me. Wonderful, I understood. That's you, I said, we said. I'm happy I met two healthy centenarians. Having examined all Okinawan longest living people, the doctors discovered that 90% of them were completely healthy. This surprising fact determined the course of the scientific research of the future professor. Studying the Okinawan anomalies have become his life's work. In the beginning of my research, I'm interested in the genetic factors. 200,000 Okinawan people are living in Brazil. The life expectancy of Brazilian Okinawans is 17 years shorter than the Okinawans who live in Okinawa. But environmental factors are more important than the health factors, maybe. Makoto Suzuki, the world-renowned gerontologist, has been researching this age phenomenon of his fellow countrymen for 40 years. Which components of the Okinawan lifestyle slowed down the aging process? What is the secret of the exceptional health and longevity of the locals? I categorized all of the data into four items. The first chapter is diet culture. The second one is physical activity. The third one is self-help manner. We can understand easily about the physical health, also mental health and social health. That is the physical health manner. The 80-year-old professor Suzuki is not even thinking about retiring. He regularly updates his unique archives together with his colleagues. Those shelves hold the data of all Okinawan longest-living people. The dossier of Yohana Shiga is also there. Other than her extremely old age, this charming lady boasts another fascinating peculiarity. Even at over 100 years old, she continues to make plans for the future. I think that if you want to live long, you have to keep yourself busy with something. I like to grow sugar cane. But my relatives stop me from doing so. They say, do you remember how old you are? How are you going to work in the field? We talk to the person whose age exceeds the average lifespan by dozens of years. And not once does she say that she suffers from old age, that she is too old or that she would like to be young. All that she appeared to be worried about during our conversation was the color of her hair. The fisherwoman from Mibaru literally does not notice her age. She lives an active life. This prompted a short test, which yielded mixed results. We will do a short test now. Please take a marker and draw a clock face on it. Then indicate the time of quarter to one on it. This classic test allows one to quickly identify the signs of mental deterioration. The Okinawan centenarian drew a rectangular clock face and even all the numbers. But she did it anti-clockwise. Now mark quarter to one on it. She performed the task with ease. Thus, from a scientific point of view, we see the first signs of dementia. However, those signs are so minuscule that they do not produce any negative effects and do not interfere with her everyday life, her communication with neighbors, singing karaoke, her normal routines and taking care of her house and herself. The little Japanese Okinawa is the world center of longevity. Today there are 319 centenarians. Even the bloody battles of the Second World War did not diminish this extraordinary count. Almost one third of the civilians of the island died at the Battle of Okinawa. Most of the populated settlements were completely destroyed. Only one street survived out of the entire city of Naha. I am Andrey Cherilov and I am the head of the Okinawan Russian Society. I am 37 years old. Moscovite Andrey Cherilov became an Okinawan citizen in 2002. Today he is a certified translator, a graduate of the local university specializing in Japanese culture. Within 12 years Andrey learned a lot about the nature, history and customs of the island's citizens. Ancient Okinawa was called the land of happy immortals and some of their traditions support that statement. They have a festival, a ritual festival called Kajimaya to celebrate one's 97th birthday. The 97-year-olds are put in a cart, given a windmill like those that children play with and rolled down the streets. And even if you ask someone about their plans for the future, the answer in most cases will be, I'd love to reach the age of Kajimaya. The main reason why Andrey moved to Japan was martial arts. Okinawa is considered to be the birthplace of karate. However, the young man from Russia was attracted by a different type of martial arts. Diagonally, is that clear? If you do it this way, then the sword turns on its side. Raise it over your head, then a quick thrust. Now repeat that. For six days a week, tutor Hamamoto passes on his knowledge to his students. His ancestors going back 14 generations have not been separated from a sword. His own professional career spans over 70 years. I am Hamamoto Aisawa. I am 78 years old. To be honest, I didn't expect that. Primarily, such a command of one's own body, the technique, the smoothness of movement. And he does not look his age either. If I met him in the street, I think that he's around 50 or at most 55 years old. The main rule of the seasoned sensei is cast-iron discipline. His daily regimen is very strict. I eat everything, but I never overindulge. I have never overindulged in meat. I normally wake up at six in the morning, have breakfast, do household chores, and go to the center of martial arts. I first go for a four-kilometer walk in the park. The classes start at nine. By 11 p.m., I'm normally asleep. The life of this Japanese pensioner is constant self-improvement. He still works out four hours a day. He calls the sharp two-kilogram sword the main weapon against old age. Another secret of longevity is a special attitude to age. As most aged citizens of Okinawa, Mr. Hamamoto rarely thinks about his own age. We perceive aging and our age as unavoidable evils, as some kind of tragedy. Even the words we use, twilight, declining years, are negative. It feels as if those people made friends with time. They don't fade away. They live in a certain stage of their lives, which requires certain changes. And it is normal for them to adapt to those, and there is nothing negative about it. Push it. Step forward. Another leg. That's it. In his long career, Hamamoto fully trained 60 students. Yet he is not the oldest teacher of martial arts on the island. One floor up, an 80-year-old sensei demonstrates his skill. People who have entered their 90s regularly work out here at this gym. I don't feel my age. I don't even think about it. I just work out every day and communicate with my students. If you deal with the youth all the time, you become younger yourself. I turned 78, and I still have 28 of my own teeth. You have to agree, that doesn't often happen. One of the most renowned Okinawan longest-living persons starts his day with a demanding morning exercise. To see this unusual scene, you'd have to go to the city beach at 6 in the morning. This little beach is highly popular among the elderly citizens of Naha. An hour before sunrise, a group of pensioners are already there, exercising. As a rule, this man, of very advanced years, is always the first to arrive. I am Yamakawa Fumijasu. I am 93 years old. The 93-year-old gentleman approaches morning exercise more seriously than others. His hour-long workout consists of a set of exercises which are not within the range of abilities of every middle-aged person. To be honest, I haven't seen many people half your age who could repeat this, including myself. I can't even imagine how it is possible. At 6 o'clock in the morning, when it's still dark, it left an indelible impression on me. Unbelievable how a man who is 90 years old can do all those complex exercises, jog, swim and do a headstand. It is simply surreal. The headstand is the proof of an exceptionally good physical condition of this longest-living person. It is remarkable that he only learned to do it when he was 40. 25 years later, Mr. Yamakawa ran his first marathon. I started jogging when I was 55. At the age of 65, I ran a marathon in Naha. Quite late in life, isn't it? At the age of 69, I learned about the track and field competitions for pensioners. I have taken part in them ever since. I do hammer throwing and long jumping. The sport career of Mr. Yamakawa started after his retirement. Prior to that, he didn't have the time. For most of his life, he was working with finances. He ended his career as a senior manager in the bank of Ryukyu. In Europe, and most definitely in Russia, retirement is more or less the end point of an active full life. In Japan, the situation is different. Living in a communal society, the Japanese get an opportunity to pursue their dreams and wishes only after retirement. It is the pensioners who constitute the majority of the members of voluntary organizations in Japan. Life acquires new meaning after retirement. Therefore, one's life in Japan is not divided into periods of active life and the twilight years. In fact, upon retirement, Japanese pensioners in a way start a second life. Yamakawa Fumujasu is a member of various social organizations. Among his hobbies are calligraphy, drawing, gardening, and collecting rocks. But his main hobby is definitely sport. I am training to set a record in hammer throwing in the senior sportsman category. My next goal is to do a long jump at the age of 95. No one in Japan has done that before. My main dream is to run a marathon at the age of 100. But I want you to clearly understand that I am not practicing sports only to stay healthy. I am healthy because I enjoy what I am doing. This is what I am living for. In Okinawa, we call it ikijai. But only in French, there is a word for ikigai. That's a kind of ikigai, maybe. Ikigai is the key concept of the Okinawan life philosophy. Nearly every islander will not hesitate in supplying an answer to the question of what their key component is to having a happy life. My ikigai is to communicate with everyone, to make friends, and to be busy with something while I still have energy for it, to do whatever I like. Ikigai, to me, is about raising young people and training students. I want to pass my knowledge and skills on to the next generations. The word ikigai consists of iki, to live, and gai, a value. But it is not a value as understood by Europeans. It is the life-giving force that makes you get out of bed in the morning and carry on living. The Okinawan citizen rarely asks questions on the meaning of life. Boredom and depression are foreign to them. For hundreds of years, the islanders have been sorting out such issues jointly with the help of support groups called moai. This unique phenomenon emerged spontaneously. Members of moai used to provide financial, physical, and social support to each other. Nowadays, the main principles of those groups are common interests, for instance, singing. The gerontologists consider ikigai and moai to be the main constituents of Okinawan longevity. Most locals differ from modern societies in other ways, too. They are not in a hurry. They are easy-going about tardiness. Do not feel anxious. Do not worry about or remember evil, because it only harms oneself. They still live in a communal way, helping and supporting each other. The Okinawan dialect has a word, uimaru. Maru means a circle. If you put all company workers in a line, you will not be able to tell the head of the company by looking at them. There are no expensive cars in Okinawa. Everyone drives the same cars. And this is their way of displaying equality. The former banker Yamakawa Fumijasu cycles around the city. You will not find luxury items in his humble apartment. His main treasure is his collection of sporting trophies. In the last 20 years, this elderly man has ranked first 139 times. So, it is not surprising that he agrees to do a simple test. Now we will conduct a simple test. I will show you once, and then we will repeat these movements together three times. This exercise is a litmus test for some of the mental processes. It is used to evaluate someone's working memory, coordination and concentration. Now, do it yourself five times. Very good! Thanks a lot! How to live longer? Exercise. Get enough sleep. And... Learn to relax. You can eat everything. Just don't overindulge on fatty foods. The main thing is to know when to stop. American food is very popular here now. Young people simply love it. And I think they become ill more often now than the older generations. In the 20th century, Okinawa experienced harsh times more than once. The Japanese economic miracle did not reach this island. Up until 1972, Okinawa was controlled by the USA. Despite this, the locals managed to maintain their traditional systems of communal living and the peculiar customs of their ancestors. The food traditions have remained intact on the island for hundreds of years. Professor Kazuhiro Tairo knows all about the Okinawan cuisine. He's been studying that from a scientific point of view since the 1980s. For instance, taste this. It is called umibudo, or sea grapes. It only grows on the coast of Okinawa. This seaweed is rich in iodine and minerals. They used to collect it from the seabed, and now it is harvested in special farms. What is this? This is champuro, a traditional Okinawan dish made from vegetables, eggs, and fried tofu. Tofu contains a lot of vegetable protein. Okinawans have it nearly every day. Various types of seaweed, vegetables, and soy tofu comprise the typical components of the Okinawan cuisine. Other than that, Okinawan daily meals include pork and seafood. For instance, thinly sliced raw fish, sashimi. Okinawan cuisine is very versatile. Its basis is the balance of all ingredients without any extremes. We've been comparing Okinawan cuisine with the cuisines of other countries for 30 years, and we have arrived at the conclusion that our diet is the basis of a healthy lifestyle and longevity. According to the statistics of Professor Tairo, the local longest living people hardly ever have stomach cancer. Okinawa boasts the lowest rate of obese people in the whole of Japan. This is due to a number of reasons, one of which is right here on this table. Whatever an Okinawan eats, the food is placed in small portions. To eat moderately here is an ancient tradition called hara-hachi-bu. Hara-hachi-bu consists of two parts. Hara is our body, our stomach. Hachi-bu is 0.8, that is 80%. So this means that you don't eat to feel full, always leave some room. This is the recipe for good health. This principle is very old and it is part of our mentality. I often hear from the longest living people that it is bad to overindulge. Food is low in salt here. Is this just my impression or is it a fact? You are absolutely right. Okinawa rates last in the scale of salt consumption in Japan and this has been the case for a very long time. That is why the rate of strokes and cardiovascular diseases is very low here too. This house in Nishihara belongs to an Okinawan centenarian. Today there is a happy event. Three generations of Iwao came to visit the head of the family who recently celebrated his 101st birthday. I am Itokazu Iwao. I was born on the 29th of November, 1913. I was born 100 kilometers from Okinawa on the neighboring island of Kume. He suffered a lot of hardships during the first half of his life. The worst times were the period of World War II. In August 1945, a 30-year-old gunman, Itokazu, found himself in the Chinese Manchuria. Soviet troops were approaching Manchuria at the time. They shot at us every day. It was impossible to find a shelter from their shells. My scadran was totally destroyed. I was shell-shocked and had a serious leg injury. I regained consciousness only in a Russian hospital. Itokazu was sent to Central Asia as a prisoner of war. Until 1950, he was building hydropower stations in the Soviet Republic. A worker. Fitting work. Concrete work. Group commander is working very well. Understand? This longest-living person still surprises others with his knowledge of Russian. Not suffering from sclerosis is an important attribute of healthy longevity. The 100-year-old participants of the project demonstrated very good memories. Itokazu Ibao is no exception, which is proved by our last test. So let's start. Where are we now? Nishihara. Block T. Building 153. Thanks a lot. What day is it today? Sunday? Please memorize and repeat five words. Moon. Cat. Pencil. Flower. Car. How good is your memory? Not bad, I think. Please repeat the words then. Okay. Moon. Car. Cat. He made no mistake in the day of the week, place where we were located, and repeated three words out of the five. Not even the easiest ones, which is a remarkable result for his age. The longest living person from Nishihara not only succeeded in the intellectual task, he also astonished our expert with his physical condition. The centenarian offered to see who was the strongest in an arm wrestling match. Okay? Okay? Let's do that. And he won. What is behind the extraordinary health of this person? I think my main secret is my family. I have seven children, 30 grandchildren, and 40 great-grandchildren. I can't remember all their names, but they never forget about me. They take care of me and support me. They come to visit me all the time. Every day they give me joy and the energy to live. According to gerontologists, the harm caused by social isolation to the elderly people can be compared to that of smoking. Russian researcher Oleg Gusev shares this opinion. Close-knit family and friends are able to extend one's life. Combating loneliness is one of the rules of Okinawan longevity. First of all, live without thinking about time. Don't be afraid to try something, but at the same time maintain a certain rhythm. When speaking, keep regular hours. Secondly, maintain social links and communication. All our longest-living people communicate a lot with their relatives, friends, and students. And finally, ikigai, an activity or a hobby, something that brings joy to you every day, makes you feel fulfilled and prolongs your life.