The main foodstuffs of the Japanese in ancient times
Japan is a fairly small country, and its inhabitants constantly experienced food shortages. In addition, Buddhism, which came to the Land of the Rising Sun from its Chinese neighbors, introduced the idea of vegetarianism into the Japanese diet.
Therefore, the average Japanese ate large quantities of rice and vegetables. Low-fat fish was a necessary addition; even vegetarians could afford it. Meat was banned by government around the sixth century. From that moment on, no 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 devoted a lot of effort to work. Hard work is a national characteristic, and a fifteen-hour workday is considered normal in Japan. Together with a low-calorie diet, this did not allow the Japanese to grow.
Average height in Asia 
Average height of guys in China, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries
1. South Korea
Average height: 174.2 cm. Population: 51,413,925 people. State GDP: 1.457 trillion. USD GDP per capita: USD 29,140 Average salary (net): USD 2,903 (≈203 thousand rubles)
South Koreans are the luckiest people in terms of monthly income, with an average net income of $2,903, which is the highest average salary in all of Asia (beating out countries such as Japan, Singapore and Taiwan) - in the world, South Korea ranks 10th place, leaving behind France, Canada and Germany. Taekwondo is considered the national sport of the Koreans, which may be why they are so long-legged and tall; football is also developed (especially after a good result at the 2002 World Cup). Koreans are also one of the thinnest nations among developed countries - this is primarily due to diet, most of which consists of seafood and salads.
2. Japan
Average height: 172 cm Population: 126,910,000 people State GDP: $4.395 trillion GDP per capita: $34,611 Average salary (net): $2,522 (≈176 thousand rubles)
It is no longer news that wages are high in Japan. In terms of average monthly income, Japan ranks 17th in the world, $2,522, which is approximately equal to 176 thousand rubles. Japan has always been the richest state in the region. Sports in Japan are an integral part of the life of Japanese society. Although the average height in Japan is 172 cm, on the street you can often meet Japanese people with a height of 180 or 190 cm, or even more than 200! And in the list of the tallest Asians, Japan takes an honorable second place!
3. Taiwan (Republic of China)
Average height: 171.4 cm Population: 23,299,716 people State GDP: $929.5 billion GDP per capita: $39,767 Average salary (net): $2,200 (≈154 thousand rubles) .)
Taiwan or as the Thais themselves call their country - the Republic of China! No no, this is not China, this is a democratic state formed during the civil war between the Communists led by Mao and the Democrats led by Chiang Kai-shek. The Thais themselves are the same continental Chinese, only holding different political beliefs. Why are they taller than mainland Chinese? Probably because before the economic boom in China, Taiwan lived very prosperously! Good nutrition and an active lifestyle have brought Thais to third place on the list of tallest Asians!
4. Thailand
Average height: 170.3 cm Population: 70,498,494 people State GDP: $373 billion GDP per capita: $5,426 Average salary (net): $489 (≈34 thousand rubles)
In the region, Thailand is in the middle position in terms of income due to the developed tourism industry of the economy. This is a country where everything is cheap! Starting from food, ending with non-standard services (intimate tourism and plastic surgery for gender reassignment). As you know, Thailand has the largest number of transvestites per capita (men who have changed their gender to female) and it is not so easy to distinguish them from real women. As for the population's income, 80 or 90 percent of it depends on foreign tourists. The Thais are quite a sporty nation, with developed active sports. The country has a particularly developed national martial art - Thai boxing. For this reason, despite the low level of income and not a very plentiful diet, the Thais, although thin, are physically very developed - and tall, compared to their neighbors.
5. China
Average height: 170.2 cm. Population: 1,368,660,000 people. State GDP: 12.383 trillion. USD GDP per capita: USD 9,828 Average salary (net): USD 656 (≈46 thousand rubles)
There are many Chinese and they are all of different heights. In large cities in China, the population is significantly higher than residents from the provinces. The average height of the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom is based on residents of large cities aged 18 to 24 years. The Chinese, like the Japanese, once barely reached 160 cm. So China’s economic growth is bearing fruit.
What is the reason for the change in the height of the Japanese?
Having looked at the above data, one may naturally ask why short Japanese women suddenly began to grow rapidly. And why did men who had a stable body weight for more than three hundred years gain weight? 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 height 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, city 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 chose small villages as their permanent place of residence. This testifies in favor of the scientists’ theory, because in the city the diet is very diverse and subject to serious changes in composition.
Modern Japanese eat large amounts of lactose-free meat and dairy products. Asians have always been very poor at digesting lactose in milk, so they almost never ate foods containing it. In the twentieth century, scientists learned to produce milk that was safe for Asians, and the Japanese authorities began to massively introduce the product into the country's markets. The advertising campaign was a success, and now the country's residents 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.
How will the height of Japanese people change 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 height between Russian and Japanese has decreased to five centimeters. If the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun increase their fat consumption tenfold and include twice as many eggs in their diet, then by the beginning of the twenty-second century they have every chance of becoming a nation whose growth will exceed the world average.
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?
Japanese: height and weight (changes over the last 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 beginning of the twentieth, men in Japan were one hundred and fifty-seven centimeters tall, and women were one hundred and forty-five. This made Japanese women surprisingly fragile and tender in the eyes of Europeans. Adult women depicted in engravings of that time were always of distinctly short stature and in bright clothes, which further emphasized their peculiarity.
The last hundred years have brought significant changes in appearance to the Japanese. They began to grow rapidly, and today they are almost equal to the average European. But let’s take our time and look at the increasing trend in more detail.
From 1900 to 1930, Japanese men grew to 164 centimeters; thirty years later, the average height of Japanese men became 166 centimeters. By the end of the twentieth century, the Japanese had grown another six centimeters and surpassed the 172 centimeter mark. Surprisingly, the percentage increase in growth was more significant in the second half of the twentieth century.
In parallel with the increase in height, the Japanese became heavier. At the beginning of the century, the average weight of an adult man did not exceed fifty-two kilograms. Over fifty years, body weight increased by four kilograms, but by the year two thousand the Japanese already weighed sixty-eight kilograms. Which confirms the theory about a powerful surge in the height and weight of the Japanese nation in the second half of the twentieth century.
The women of Japan did not lag behind their men; they also began to grow actively. From 145 centimeters in 1900, Japanese women grew to 152 centimeters in thirty years. They did not stop there and by the beginning of the twenty-first century they reached a record figure for the country - 160 centimeters.
They gained just as much weight. Between 1900 and 1930 they gained 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.
Canons of beauty in Japanese
In the minds of most people, the Japanese look like short people. And Japanese adult women generally resemble a European child of twelve years old. We don’t imagine the Japanese differently, but in fact, this very appearance is one of the criteria of beauty in Japan, introduced in ancient times.
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 from society, which is quite difficult for all Japanese adults, without exception.
The main criteria of beauty in Japanese can safely include:
- subtlety (applies to men and women);
- short stature;
- little weight;
- whiteness;
- 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 claim that the Japanese nation will soon be forced to seriously reconsider the criteria of beauty, because it is rapidly growing and gaining weight. How serious are these changes?
