Only 23 of the nation's 47 prefectures have confirmed through meetings that their oldest residents are alive, a Kyodo News survey showed Tuesday.
All prefectural governments said they make periodic checks, but only 23 use face-to-face meetings while most of the others rely on phone calls to their family members.
The survey comes on the heels of recent revelations in Tokyo that a man who was supposed to be the capital's oldest man at age 111 died three decades ago and that no one seems to know where the city's oldest woman can be found.