Average growth of the Japanese: a comparison by years. The main food of the Japanese

Each nation has its own characteristics, according to which it is easy to determine its belonging to a particular group. For example, the Irish are distinguished by the red hair color, and the English are dryish physique and small facial features. But the Japanese stand out against the background of other Asians with a small height and weight. Have you ever wondered why the average growth of the Japanese does not exceed 165 centimeters? What is the secret of their miniature?

The growth of a person: how to measure it, and on what does it depend on?

Since the birth of a person, the indicators of his weight and height become some of the most important. Correctly measure growth - 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 the vertical position with the straight back and the unfolded shoulders during the measurements.

The growth of a person depends on many factors:

• Heredity;
• Sex;
• Diseases;
• Habitat;
• Diet.

The totality of all these factors becomes a distinctive anthropometric sign not only of one family, but of the nation as a whole. Although this value is not stable and unchanged, the research of scientists proves that humanity is constantly growing. This can be traced to the example of how the average growth of the Japanese over the past decade has changed.

Canons of beauty in Japanese

In the view of most people, the Japanese look like people of low stature. And Japanese adult women in general resemble a European child of twelve years. We do not represent the Japanese otherwise, but in fact it is this appearance that is one of the criteria of beauty in Japan, introduced in antiquity.

It should be noted that the people of the Land of the Rising Sun do not recognize the manifestations in a person of a bright individuality, that's why most Japanese try to fit themselves to the accepted standards. Otherwise, they become outcasts of society, which is quite hard to tolerate by all the older Japanese, without exception.

The main criteria of beauty in Japanese can safely include:

• Subtlety (applies to men and women);
• short stature;
• little weight;
• White skin;
• European cutting eyes.

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 reconsider the criteria for beauty, because it is growing rapidly and gaining weight. How serious are these changes?

Japanese: height and weight (changes over the last hundred years)

According to anthropologists, the average population growth of the Land of the Rising Sun has not changed for almost three hundred years. From the seventeenth century until the beginning of the twentieth, men in Japan had a growth of one hundred and fifty-seven centimeters, and women - one hundred and forty-five. This made Japanese women in the eyes of Europeans surprisingly fragile and tender. The adult women depicted on the engravings of that time were always underlined in low stature and in bright clothes, which made their feature even more prominent.

The last hundred years brought the Japanese significant changes in appearance. They began to grow actively, and today are almost equal to the average European. But let us not hurry and consider the tendency to increase in more detail.

From 1900 to 1930, Japanese men grew to 164 centimeters, after another thirty years, the average growth of the Japanese began to be already 166 centimeters. By the end of the twentieth century, the Japanese grew six centimeters and overcame the bar at 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 growth, 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, the body weight increased by four kilograms, but by the year 2000 the Japanese had weighed sixty-eight kilograms. What confirms the theory of a powerful jump in the growth and weight of the Japanese nation in the second half of the twentieth century.

Women of Japan did not lag behind their men, they also began to grow actively. From 145 centimeters in 1900 Japanese women have grown for thirty years up to 152 centimeters. On this they did not stop and by the beginning of the twenty-first century had reached record levels for the country - 160 centimeters.

So much they gained weight. In the period from 1900 to 1930, They recovered by four kilograms - from 46 to 50 kg. And by the end of the century, the Japanese were weighed 2 kg more. Scientists believe that this figure in reality is slightly larger, but the fact that Japanese women are constantly on a diet does not allow them to gain weight significantly.

What is the reason for the changes in the growth of the Japanese?

Looking at the above data, you can ask yourself a natural question, why the Japanese of short stature suddenly began to grow actively. And why men who differed in stable body weight more than three hundred years gained weight. Scientists see the main reason for such a large-scale changes in nutrition 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 the country's economic development. The higher the percentage of GDP per capita, the higher people become. And city dwellers grow much faster than their compatriots living in rural areas. For example, the average growth of Japanese citizens is two centimeters higher than those who chose small villages as their permanent residence. This testifies to the theory of scientists, because in the city the diet is very diverse and subject to serious changes in the composition.

The modern Japanese uses a large amount of meat and dairy products without lactose. Asians have at all times very poorly absorbed milk lactose, so almost never used to eat foods that contain 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 markets of the country. The advertising campaign was a success, and now the inhabitants of the country use daily more milk and meat than the average Russian. And this is significantly different from what the Japanese used to eat for centuries.

The main food of the Japanese in ancient times

Japan is quite a small country, and its inhabitants have constantly lacked food. In addition, Buddhism, who came to the territory of the Land of the Rising Sun from the Chinese neighbors, introduced the idea of vegetarianism into the Japanese diet.

Therefore, the average Japanese used to eat a large amount of rice and vegetables. A necessary addition was a lean fish, even vegetarians allowed it. Meat was banned at the government level in about the sixth century. Since that moment, no Japanese could eat meat products and was deprived of the protein necessary for growth.

It is worth noting that with a fairly meager diet, the Japanese gave a lot of energy to work. Hard work is a distinctive national feature, normal in Japan is a working day lasting fifteen hours. Together with non-caloric nutrition this did not allow the Japanese to grow.

How will the growth of the Japanese in the future?

Anthropologists believe that in the next fifty years, the Japanese will catch up with the Russians. At the moment, the gap in the growth of Russian and Japanese has been reduced to five centimeters. If the people of the Land of the Rising Sun increase their fat consumption tenfold and include twice as many eggs in their diet, then they have every chance to become a nation whose growth will exceed the world average by the beginning of the twenty-second century.

As a conclusion, I would like to add that today the Japanese volleyball team is one of the highest in the world. It's amazing, is not it?