Why Japanese women live so damn long

I guess this should primarily be a blog about Japan, seeing as that's where I live and that was the original purpose. But since starting a few years back, America has got worse, Bush and co. are so far out to lunch it's absurd, and the environment is now all over the news whereas even a year ago it was still just a few scientists, ranters and Al Gore.

So, things got in the way of Japan, which this afternoon had yet another earthquake - a 6.8, which if you consider Kobe had a 7.2 and that killed 6,000 people then it seems that with a few deaths being reported that Japan has this time got off lightly. Also, we moved recently from a thin house that swayed like a jelly at the least sign of a rumble, to a place that is far more chunky and spread out and a lot younger, though it still swayed today enough to make you realise that things aren't as solid as they look. I rolled over in bed the other night and my girlfriend had a panic that it was a fatal earthquake. Am going to do this more often from now on. Anyway, since 1981, all buildings have supposedly been built with certain standards, which means that they are not supposed to collapse in earthquakes, merely to sway, or go with the flow. It's the older wooden buildings that are more at risk with their heavy roof tiles that fall on Japanese heads.

Anyway, to answer the post, news came out in recent months of how Japanese women live longer than any other on earth (an average of 86 years). Even the men come in pretty high at 81. Now, I did wonder in fact how come Japanese men can get still into their 80s considering the ludicrously long hours they work + the cigarettes 50% of them smoke relentlessly, and the alcohol they consume in after work drinks gatherings, which seem to be some kind of neverending rites of passage initiation ceremony.

The women, on the other hand, do bugger all. This, I have come to realise, is why they live so damn long. They get married in their mid to late-20s, they stop work and have one child. This they farm out to their parents before the school comes and takes them at the age of six. The women at this time revert to coffee mornings, nail gel monstrosities and interminable shopping. The men stress themselves to an early grave at 81, and the women get to plough on for 5 more years on his company pension. One would think with what they do that the men should die around 66 and the women make it to 90, and I am still puzzling as to why these figures are so far out.