2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A comparative study of mortality and migration between Japan and Europe in the beginning of the 20th century
| Project/Area Number |
15330070
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Economic history
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| Research Institution | Surugadai University |
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Principal Investigator |
MURAKOSHI Kazunori Surugadai University, Faculty of Cultural Information Resources, Professor, 文化情報学部, 教授 (80265438)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SAITO Osamu Hitotsubashi University, Professor, 経済研究所, 教授 (40051867)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2005
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| Keywords | Historical Demography / Mortality / Infant Mortality / Comparative Studies / Meiji and Taisho eras / Woman's labor / Breast feeding / Health Inspection in Rural Areas |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this research project is to examine the changing levels of infant mortality and to determine the cause of the trends in modern Japan, especially in the last half of the Meiji and Taisho Eras. The summary of the results is as follows.
In the first year of the research we held a meeting with foreign collaborators in Japan and determine the framework for the comparative study of mortality between Japan and Europe. Based on this framework, we analyzed the relation between mortality and population density with respect to urban areas, using the data of the mid of Meiji Era. As a result we found that Farr's law was applicable to relatively populous cities in Japan.
Second, we examined the reliability of Japanese mortality statistics and showed that the statistics of foetal death and infant mortality had already been remarkably accurate even in the beginning of the 20 the century.
Third, we put forward a hypothesis that the cause of high infant mortality in a period such as the Taisho Era was the underdevelopment of infants due to deteriorating maternal milk supply and that this deterioration, both in quality and in quantity, was derived from the high labor intensity of women. We demonstrated the applicability of this hypothesis to rural areas with the fact that many breast-fed infants in rural areas were underdeveloped in the Taisho Era : this fact showed that the milk problem did happen at the time. We also found that infants whose mothers were overburdened with household chores were underdeveloped.
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