patrick.net

You mean the Japanese get five extra years of doddering, drool bucket magnificence? What an outrage.

Look at the bright side: they save $5000/yrs in the process...

Part of it may be quality of health care. The elephant in the room is culture. How much do we care about health? How much do we know about it? How much of our time and attention span do we devote to it? I'm guessing the problem is us. We like to spend money on it, but probably don't bother working healthy habits into our lives.

jazz_music says

Should one defend the USA's decadence to the point of belittling the want to survive?

Many Americans would wrap themselves in the flag and roll into an early grave rather than to take their socialized medicine.

Japan life expectancy numbers are highly suspect due to widespread practice of not reporting deaths of the elderly to the authorities. There was a story about newly-elected mayor of one of Japanese small cities trying to meet top 10 oldest residents: he couldn't meet a single one of them even after repeated personal visits to their residences. This prompted an investigation and turned out they all were long dead but their relatives kept collecting their pensions.

Longevity stats are all suspect. It's the gov's and insurance companies "finger on the scale" to justify lowered payouts and benefits over time.

People croak a LOT more than the cuddly stats suggest. They are numerical opiates to make people think they will live longer.