NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- Legend holds that an ancient Chinese emperor dispatched a mission of explorers to find Horai, a heavenly island believed to exist in the ocean, with orders to find the elixir of life and bring it to him.
The mission of 3,000 people, however, never returned, and it is believed the earthly paradise proved too tempting for them to leave. Could "the island of eternal life" have been today's Okinawa? The idea is not too far-fetched, according to one health researcher.
Japan's southernmost prefecture of 1.3 million people has the most healthy and longest-living population of elderly in the entire country. According to the latest available data, there were 365 people aged 100 and over in Okinawa in 1998.