The average life expectancy for Japanese fell slightly in 1999 as an outbreak of influenza in the winter boosted pneumonia-linked deaths, government statistics showed Friday.

The average life span for Japanese men stood at 77.1 years, down 0.06 from the previous year for the second consecutive yearly fall, while that for women came to 83.99 years, down 0.02 -- the first drop in four years, the Health and Welfare Ministry said. But the ministry said the nation's average life expectancy is continuing to trend upward in the longer term.

In 1999, Japanese men and women saw their average life expectancies decline in tandem for the first time since 1995, when more than 6,000 people were killed in the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

Deaths from pneumonia rose by about 12,000 from the previous year to roughly 94,000 for the year, with many of those affected being elderly people.

The discrepancy in life expectancy between men and women continued to widen, increasing by 0.04 years to 6.89 years. The ministry said it has yet to determine the cause of that gap, though there is speculation that wok pressure negatively impacts on men's health.

The most likely causes of death for both males and females born in 1999 were projected as cancer, heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, in that order, the ministry said.

If these main causes of death were overcome, the average life expectancy would jump by 8.52 years for men and 7.79 years for women, with 50.6 percent of men and 73.1 percent of women living to or beyond the age of 80, ministry officials said.

While calculation methods vary from country to country, Japanese are recognized as having the longest average life expectancy in the world. Swiss women had an average life expectancy of 82.3 in 1997, and Icelandic males on average lived 77 years according to 1997-98 calculations.