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Changes in Female Height and Age of Menarche in Modern Japan, 1870s–1980s: Reconsideration of Living Standards During the Interwar Period

In: Gender and Family in Japan

Author

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  • Ken’ichi Tomobe

    (Hitotsubashi University)

Abstract

This paper aims to show the trends and fluctuations of mean age at menarche from the 1880s to 1980s by using two kinds of menarche data collected by hospitals, volunteer organizations, private companies and so on: one is primary research data and the other are cited data in journals and books. Three findings emerge. (1) The long-term trend in the mean age at menarche was relatively stable at around the latter half of age 14 until the 1940s and afterward steadily declined to 12 years old in the 1980s. (2) The mean age at menarche showed a statistically significant decline even during the 1920s and 1930s in the case of students and mill workers; and (3) the velocity of height growth of both boys and girls was mostly increasing until the 1930s, and was at its maximum during the 1920s. These findings enable us to reconsider the conventional view of living standards and economic recession during the interwar period in Japan by analyzing not only economic but also anthropometric indices.

Suggested Citation

  • Ken’ichi Tomobe, 2019. "Changes in Female Height and Age of Menarche in Modern Japan, 1870s–1980s: Reconsideration of Living Standards During the Interwar Period," Monograph Series of the Socio-Economic History Society, Japan, in: Nobuko Okuda & Tetsuhiko Takai (ed.), Gender and Family in Japan, chapter 0, pages 95-123, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:msschp:978-981-13-9909-1_4
    DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-9909-1_4
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    Cited by:

    1. Kenichi Tomobe & Takako Kimura & Keisuke Moriya, 2019. "Height, nutrition and the side production of sericulture and carp feeding in modern rural Japan(1) aggregate data analysis:the case of Zakouji-village, Shimo-Ina gun, Nagano, 1880s-1930s," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 19-17, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.

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