How Old Was Dr. Usui?

by Jessica Miller, TLC

From the Usui Memorial, we know that Dr Usui was born on August 15, 1865 and died in 1926 at the age of 62. For any math whizzes out there, subtracting the year of his birth from the year of his death would imply he died at 61, not 62 when he died. Why does the memorial say he was 62?

The answer is that Japanese tradition counts age from the time of conception not birth. By tradition, a baby is considered to be 1 year old on the day he or she is born.