That's pretty close. If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be: trains.
Car culture makes Americans fat and lazy. 40% of US adults are obese. 80% are overweight.
Walking and good food, yeah, that helps. But trains introduce short sprints into everyday life. It starts with "He's too late, he's never gonna catch it... well I'll be damned, he did it." and pretty soon, you're saying "We can catch it, just run!" Everyone on the train has a shopping bag, because trains don't have huge trunks like a car. You want groceries? Carry it. Good exercise. Trains also remove the road rage from your life, the daily stress of defensive driving in a fast moving freeway full of other angry drivers. Trains eliminate the premature death caused by road accidents which not only lower life expectancy directly, but indirectly as bread winners are taken from families. The car exhaust is gone too. Trains reshape how towns are built, with higher density and less parking. More walking! Everything mushrooms out from the decision to travel with trains. It's little wonder why Japan has the lowest obesity rate in the world.
I don't disagree, but to add I think the retirement culture probably helps a lot for longevity too.
The Japanese retirement attitude is "I've worked my ass off all my life. Contributing to the society all my life. Finally I have some time to spend on my hobbies! I should be active!" and they pick up quite active hobbies: if you go hiking mountains you'll see many old retired people with serious gears. Also still trains.
Contrast it to ime, western retirement which is more "finally I can relax" and people become sedentary. Hanging around in parks, cafe, or focus more on socializing and diet. And starts to rely more on cars and other senior services.
Yes. My Japanese wife’s father and mine are the same age. FIL had a heart attack last year and almost died. Yet he’s still the president of the rotary club, travels every two weeks across the country to attend events or give lectures. Recently hosted an international student exchange at his workshop and is still making new pieces of art to be exhibited.
My father spends all day watching football or horses and has visibly started going senile.
Feels like a much more likely explanation. Heard my parents talk a lot about people who retire, make their primary activity be vegging out, and then health issues start popping up. Japanese also seem to have a big culture of everyone needing to have hobbies.
Germany is rather like that. Never try to keep up with a German granny going up a hillside.
By this logic wouldn't people in nyc, London, Washington dc, and Paris be living extra long?
The answer to that should be fairly obvious after Iryna Zarutska and Emily Carlson happened so recently. American and Japanese trains are not qualitatively the same. Vagrants and solicitors wander the local trains here like it is their asylum. Amtrak is a lot safer since they have conductors checking tickets, but that is still very loud and unruly.
If you'd like a more direct comparison to Japan, try Hong Kong, another place where I have spent a fair amount of time riding the trains. They also have world leading life expectancy.
Life expectancy in NYC is 82.6 vs 78.4 overall for USA. Lots of variables and such, but NYC must be doing something better than the rest of the country and I wouldn't doubt trains (and walkability) are a contributing factor.