1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Accuracy of the Population Census in Pre-WWII Japan
| Project/Area Number |
08630026
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Economic statistics
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| Research Institution | Hitotsubashi University |
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Principal Investigator |
SATOW Masahiro The Institute of Economic Research Hitotsubashi University, Associate Professor, 経済研究所, 助教授 (80178772)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1996 – 1998
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| Keywords | population census / history of statistical surveys / training system for statistical ennumerators / micro data matching |
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| Research Abstract |
The project consists of following two parts : Firstly, to make a quantitative account about the accuracy of population census data in pre W. W. II Japan. Secondly, to give some explanations about the factors that support the accuracy.
As a result of the project, I make some statements here on the second point, especially on the training courses for statistical enumerators held by the prefectural governments in the late Meiji period.
Using journal articles written by contemporary statisticians as well as some prefectural documents of the Fukushima area. I find some facts as follows :
1) Students : During 1900 - 1911 there are more than 16,000 students all over Japan, most of whom are enrolled in the courses ex officio and, thereafter, become instructors at similar courses held by local governments of the lower level, namely canton (gun), town (machi) or village (mura) governments.
2) Instructors : Some 20-30 of top class statisticians who worked at the Statistical Bureau (Naikaku Toukei Kyoku), the Imperial Universities or some ministries voluntarily worked as instructors.
3) Textbook : Though the courses are not authorized by the central government but held by local governments independently each other, much of those courses used the same textbook and had quite similar curriculum. Masao Yokoyama's "An Introductory Guide to Statistics (Toukei Tsuron)" is so to say de facto standard textbook in Japan (moreover, even in China too), which we can read today. It implies that we can know about the theoretical backbone and its application of the statistical surveys in that period.
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