Each nation has its own characteristics, by which you can easily determine its belonging to a particular group. For example, the Irish are distinguished by red hair, and the British by a dryish physique and small features. But the Japanese stand out from other Asians with their small stature and weight. Have you ever wondered why the average height of the Japanese does not exceed 165 centimeters? What is the secret of their diminutiveness?
Human height: how to measure it, and what does it depend on?
From the moment a person is born, the indicators of his weight and height become one of the most important. Correctly measure height - from the most convex part of the head (crown) to the feet. And in order for the data to be more accurate, it is necessary to be in an upright position during measurements with a straight back and turned shoulders.
Human height depends on many factors:
- heredity;
- gender;
- diseases;
- habitats;
- diet.
The combination of all these factors becomes a distinctive anthropometric feature not only of one family, but of the nation as a whole. Although this value is not stable and unchanging, scientific research proves that humanity is constantly growing. This can be seen in the example of how the average height of the Japanese has changed over the past decades.
Japanese Beauty Canons
In most people's minds, the Japanese look like people of short stature. And Japanese adult women generally resemble a European child of twelve years. We do not imagine the Japanese differently, but in fact it is precisely this appearance that is one of the criteria for beauty in Japan, introduced in antiquity.
It should be noted that the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun do not recognize the manifestations of a bright individuality in a person, so most Japanese try to fit themselves into accepted standards. Otherwise, they become outcasts of society, which is quite difficult for all Japanese adults, without exception.
The main Japanese beauty criteria can be safely included:
- slenderness (applies to men and women);
- short;
- light weight;
- white;
- European eye shape.
The last criterion appeared several decades ago, but all the others have not changed for more than three hundred years. Although anthropologists argue that the Japanese nation will soon be forced to seriously revise the criteria for beauty,because she is growing rapidly and gaining weight. How serious are these changes?
Japanese: height and weight (changes over the past hundred years)
According to anthropologists, the average height of the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun has not changed for almost three hundred years. From the seventeenth century until the early twentieth century, men in Japan were 157 centimeters tall and women 145 centimeters tall. This made Japanese women in the eyes of Europeans surprisingly fragile and tender. The grown-up women depicted in the engravings of that time were always emphatically short in stature and in bright clothes, which further emphasized their peculiarity.
The last hundred years have brought the Japanese significant changes in appearance. They began to grow actively, and today they are almost equal to the average European. But let's take our time and look at the uptrend in more detail.
From 1900 to 1930, Japanese men grew to 164 centimeters, thirty years later, the average height of the Japanese began to be 166 centimeters. By the end of the twentieth century, the Japanese had grown another six centimeters and overcame the bar of 172 centimeters. Surprisingly, in the second half of the twentieth century, the percentage increase in growth was more significant.
In parallel with the increase in height, the Japanese became heavier. At the beginning of the century, the average weight of an adult male did not exceed fifty-two kilograms. For fifty years, body weight has increased by four kilograms, but by the year 2000, the Japanese already weighed sixty-eight kilograms. which supports the theory ofpowerful leap in growth and weight of the Japanese nation in the second half of the twentieth century.
The women of Japan kept up with their men, they also began to grow rapidly. From 145 centimeters in 1900, Japanese women have grown in thirty years to 152 centimeters. They did not stop there and by the beginning of the twenty-first century they had reached a record figure for the country - 160 centimeters.
That's how much they put on weight. Between 1900 and 1930 they recovered by four kilograms - from 46 to 50 kg. And by the end of the century, Japanese women gained another 2 kg. Scientists believe that this figure is actually slightly higher, but the fact that Japanese women are constantly on a diet does not allow them to gain significant weight.
What is the reason for the change in the height of the Japanese?
After looking at the above data, one can naturally wonder why Japanese women of small stature suddenly began to grow rapidly. And why did men put on weight, distinguished by a stable body weight for more than three hundred years. Scientists see the main reason for such large-scale changes in the diet of the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun.
For many years, anthropologists have been tracing the dependence of the average growth of a nation on the level of economic development of the country. The higher the percentage of GDP per capita, the taller people become. Moreover, urban residents are growing much faster than their compatriots living in rural areas. For example, the average height of Japanese city dwellers is two centimeters higher than those who have chosen small villages as their permanent residence. This istestifies in favor of the theory of scientists, because in the city the diet is very diverse and subject to serious changes in composition.
The modern Japanese eats large amounts of lactose-free meat and dairy products. Asians at all times absorbed milk lactose very poorly, so they almost never ate foods containing it. In the twentieth century, scientists learned how to produce milk that is safe for Asians, and the Japanese authorities began to massively introduce the product to the country's markets. The advertising campaign was a success, and now the inhabitants of the country consume more milk and meat every day than the average Russian. And this is significantly different from what the Japanese ate for many centuries in a row.
The staple food of the ancient Japanese
Japan is a rather small country, and its inhabitants constantly lacked food. In addition, Buddhism, which came to the territory of the Land of the Rising Sun from its Chinese neighbors, introduced the ideas of vegetarianism to the Japanese diet.
So the average Japanese ate a lot of rice and vegetables. Low-fat fish served as a necessary addition; even vegetarians could afford it. Meat was banned at the government level around the sixth century. From that moment on, not a single Japanese could eat meat products and was deprived of the protein necessary for growth.
It is worth noting that with a rather meager diet, the Japanese gave a lot of effort to work. Hard work is the hallmarka national feature, normal in Japan is a working day lasting fifteen hours. Together with a non-caloric diet, this did not allow the Japanese to grow.
How will Japanese growth change in the future?
Anthropologists believe that in the next fifty years the Japanese will overtake the Russians. At the moment, the gap in the growth of Russian and Japanese has decreased to five centimeters. In the event that the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun increase their fat intake tenfold and include twice as many eggs in their diet, then they have every chance of becoming a nation whose growth will exceed the world average by the beginning of the twenty-second century.
As a final note, I would like to add that today the Japanese volleyball team is one of the highest in the world. Amazing, isn't it?
