[muzani]

My theory would be that life expectancy measures more length of life than quality of life. There's also Asian culture in place.

For example, an old person eats unhealthy, smokes, makes lots of irresponsible decisions in life. She gets cancer, stroke, diabetes, kidney failure, we can still keep her alive for decades. She might be hooked to a dialysis machine. She has little savings. She might not have the money, time, or energy to deal with this.

Asian culture dictates that her only daughter quit her job to take care of the sick mother. There's a huge drain on society, but it keeps someone alive longer.