Japan used to follow a wonderful practice to mark old age: Everyone who reached their 100th birthday received a silver sake cup called a sakazuki. It's certainly better than the tradition in Britain, where centenarians simply get a letter from the queen.
The sakazuki gift was a nice idea when it was introduced in 1963. Back then, there was a certain rarity to it, as there were only 153 centenarians in the entire country.
However, life expectancy has been increasing rapidly and Japanese in particular have started living longer. So many centenarians celebrated their 100th birthday in 2014 that an astonishing 29,350 sakazuki were sent out. It was getting out of hand. In 2015, the custom was cancelled. It's just not unusual to reach 100 anymore.