The average life expectancy for both Japanese men and women rose for the first time in three years in 2023, possibly reflecting a drop in fatality rates for COVID-19 patients, a health ministry survey showed Friday.

Men's average life expectancy rose 0.04 year from 2022 to 81.09 years, while that of women was up 0.05 year to 87.14 years.

The ministry said that a decline in COVID-19-caused deaths likely helped boost the average life expectancy by 0.06 year for men and 0.04 year for women. The longer life expectancy may have also been due to a decrease in the number of cancer-related deaths.

The average life expectancy is the number of years a baby born in a given year is expected to live, based on the assumption that the death rate for each age group remains unchanged.

After continuing to rise almost every year since 1947, shortly after World War II, Japan's average life expectancy fell for both men and women in 2021 and 2022, impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, Japanese women had the highest average life expectancy in the world.

Japanese men ranked fifth, down one spot from fourth the preceding year, with the Asian nation behind Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Australia.

Of Japanese men born in 2023, 75.3% are expected to live until the age of 75, 26% until 90 and 9.2% until 95. The proportion of Japanese women who are expected to live until the age of 75 came to 87.9%, while that of those who will live to celebrate their 90th and 95th birthdays stood at 50.1% and 25.5%, respectively.

Among those born in 2023, 25.93% of men and 19.09% of women are expected to die of cancer. Completely eradicating cancer as a cause of death would boost average life expectancy by 3.16 years for Japanese men and 2.69 years for Japanese women, according to the ministry.