According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the average life expectancy of Japanese people in 2022 will be 81.47 years for men and 87.57 years for women. As of 2019, the healthy life expectancy, which indicates the period during which one can live daily life without being restricted by health problems, was 72.68 years for men and 75.38 years for women. The difference between healthy life expectancy and average life expectancy is said to be about 9 years for men and about 12 years for women. In a sense, men will spend the remaining years of their lives living an inconvenient life for 9 years and women for 12 years. If possible, we would like to live healthily and happily without having to go through these 9 to 12 years of inconvenient life.
In life, it is important to have emotions such as “it’s interesting, exciting,” “it’s fun to do,” and “I’m happy.” When we are working for a company, there are three divisions: 8 hours of work time, 8 hours of physiological time, and 8 hours of leisure time. The average working hours in a year is 2080 hours, calculated as 8 hours x 365 days + 7 x (7 days x 2 days). However, the leisure time of the elderly is 16 hours per day, which is 5840 hours per year. It is both the duty and right of seniors to spend these 5840 hours happily. It is said that it takes 1000 hours to develop one skill. However, it is said that it takes 10,000 hours for more specialized knowledge and skills. Seniors are in a fortunate position to contribute to society just by living a healthy and happy life. Seniors should acquire the skills to live a long and happy life in 1000 hours.
Walking with your weight on your toes improves your posture and expands your range of activity. Expanding your range of activity has a positive effect on your body, mind, and society. If you master this type of walking for 1000 hours a year, you can live a healthy old age. It is also known that when immune cells are functioning normally, cancer cells go into a dormant state and do not worsen. When health conditions deteriorate, cancer cells begin to become active. Laughter is one thing that suppresses the activity of cancer cells. How can we acquire this skill of laughter? Again, this can be solved by 1,000 hours of study. Create a system that you can always have laughter around you and enjoy it. To listen to it all the time, make sure you have Rakugo content available from your surroundings. You can complete your Rakugo content by recording a year’s worth of NHK Rakugo radio programs. Spread your activities through walking and live with laughter. If you can do that, you and society will become brighter.
