Japan’s reputation as a society of centenarians — there are supposed to be more than 40,000 of them — is up for reappraisal after evidence that two of the “oldest” Japanese citizens weren’t actually among the living.

Welfare officials in Japan found numerous cases when the oldest residents had actually died several decades ago. For example, there were people at the age of 153 and 149 registered in Osaka. Their families had concealed the death so they could go on collecting their survivor pension. Officially, Japan has 40,399 people aged 100 or older, including 4,800 in Tokyo. Each receives a letter and a gift from a local government office — usually by mail. However, it’s easy to con the system. Officials in fewer than half the country’s 47 prefectures routinely keep track of centenarians in person.