Why do the Japanese live so long

Subject: Why do the Japanese live so long.

Why to the Japanese live so long. Each year the number who pass 100 increases and currently there are 69.785 people who have breasted 100 years. Why do they share such longevity, is it the genes, the food, the lifestyle, the socialisation and the care the old people receive in Japan.
Living to be 100 is not much use if you are alone and separated from your fellow citizens. In many western countries, including sadly our own, the old are packaged off into 'old people's homes' as soon as they start to exhibit signs of frailty. We have  lost the sense of accommodating the old with the younger section of society, the children don't see it any of their business any longer to look after a parent who now needs help. 
It's part of the seismic change brought about by the psychological change in attitude away from the social responsibility in and across the nation which I remember here in Britain when I was growing up. The municipal services which included the old peoples care taken on as part of the general taxpayers contribution to a civilised society as well as affordable homes and, of course, our beloved NHS. 
This was all destroyed by the Thatcherite concept of winners and losers, every man and woman for themselves in a market orientated economy where markets determined resources. Thatcher hand in hand with Ronald Reagan converted the thinking in their respective countries, away from collective responsibility for others to individual responsibility for you, the individual.
There are societies where it is traditional for the family to fulfill the role of carer to ones ageing parents, for providing a roof over the head for a mum and dad, of including them in the family as they had included you when you were young. Mrs Thatcher famously denied societies role in providing the equilibrium we call being civilised and like sheep led to slaughter, we slavishly agreed with her. 
It's still common across the world to see Asian families baring their responsibility even when their economic situation, especially space in the house is very limited. The African tribal society, at least in the rural areas still not only find a place in their midst for the old but the old retain their sense of seniority within the household and society at large. 
Now I know I am generalising but it's interesting that the poorer nations seem to have retained the importance of keeping the family intact and valuing the social aspects of our lives more than the economically well off in the west. We make it our life's aim from early on to escape from the parental home and the neighbourhood we grew up in, a phenomena largely dated from dare I say it Mrs Thatchers yuppy 1980s when obsessed with material objects and financial success, parents became an impediment rather than a source of continuity. It's this continuity which is so valued within some societies, an acknowledgement that you didn't get where you are today without the massive input from your parents and when they get old and need help it's the time to repay the debt.

The Japanese seem to embody this involvement of respect in their daily lives. You see it in the traditional bow and the respectful gesture with their clasped hands, a sign of social acknowledgement. You see it in the convoluted observance of hierarchies, not only within the business community, where executive failure is expressed through the shame you bring upon yourself in terms of letting down the people who work for you, but also the respect for the old people within the society at large. This respect feeds into the self esteem which the old have of themselves, feeling needed and respected makes living to an old age part of the journey not a destination where the old feel themselves a burden.
Diet and the attitude to food is another important ingredient, as is their mystical understanding of the 'life force' exemplified in Kiryuho, the art of gentle movement, exemplified in the concept of harmony and flow which you see the old practicing in the parks to keep themselves supple. 
Their sense of space and the harmony that space brings is perhaps a necessary reflex to living on a crowded island, renowned for its subtle respect for personal space. Of course like all nations the Japanese have reinvented themselves in the cities where they push to the extreme this concept of space by cramming into a railway carriage or their sleeping space in a way we would find completely alien in the west. 
In Japanese art the beauty of space, the emptiness of the blank sheet, converted by a single stroke of the pen. It's this counterpoint of symbolic but simplistic change that provides them with a deep prospective of everything, including the space required for living and dying. 
Dying for the Japanese is a measure of a balance between the commitment to their own life and their life in relation to the society.  An extreme example was that of the Kamikaze pilots willingness to commit suicide for their country in war, also at the opposite end of the scale, the Zen Buddhists willingness to priorities his/her mode of living for a purpose which in essence acknowledges the social aspects of our lives and makes us try to practice respect for all sentient beings. Including and especially,  the old and infirmed, the closest being our own parents.