Showing papers in "Journal of Social History in 1980"

Nuptiality in Meiji Japan

Abstract: The evidence in favor of the traditional approach to Japanese demographic behavior in the premodern era is first reviewed using official statistical data. This approach holds that population increase was checked by Malthusian restraints. Next the author introduces a revisionist position that uses data from family reconstitution studies in the Tokugawa period 1603 to 1867 to suggest that changes in marital patterns were the major factor in controlling population growth. New evidence is then presented to support the traditional view. Finally the author examines the relationship between early industrialization and demographic change in Japan and Western Europe as a whole.