According to historical records, historical Japanese people are generally relatively short. Even during World War II, the height of many Japanese soldiers was far from the length of the rifles they held, which is vividly reflected in some documentary pictures. In fact, during the Sengoku period and the shogunate period, the Japanese people were even taller, and even some famous military generals were not as powerful and tall as they thought, for example, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Date Masamune were both 1.59 meters tall, while Tokugawa Iemitsu was even only 1.57 meters tall. So, why were japanese people in ancient times short in height? How did you reach and surpass the Asian average later?
People often say one word about height, and that's gene. The short stature of the ancient Japanese was largely determined by the genes of their people. Although they are all in East Asia, Japan does not have a long-distance hunting environment, and its people do not have Dongyi ancestry. In contrast, in the context of the integration of many ethnic groups, Chinese and Koreans have generally absorbed tall genes. These innate factors are not possessed by the Japanese.
Of course, the inability of nutrition to keep up is also an important factor in the short stature of the ancient Japanese people. This is mainly related to their living habits. The most favorite foods of Japanese people are sashimi and sashimi. For 1,200 years, The Japanese people have relied solely on fish for meat supplements, which has led to a severe lack of animal protein in their bodies. The meal sharing system that has been circulating in Japan for a long time also makes women's nutrient intake lower than that of men to a certain extent, and women's short height directly affects the height of their descendants.
Based on the above situation, the Japanese rulers have repeatedly tried to improve the height of their people, according to the Song Dynasty "Qingbo Magazine" record, at that time there were Japanese people who crossed the ocean to seek to improve the human race, called "degree seed", which probably means that a group of Japanese women came to China, and some of them young and beautiful Japanese women chose to combine with Middle-earth men.
During the Meiji Emperor's reign, the Emperor required the whole country to eat meat, and the army and students received special attention, and the proportion of meat, eggs and milk in the diet increased the nutritional level of the younger generation in Japan. Of course, the height improvement of modern Japanese people has a lot to do with mixed races. After the end of World War II, the U.S. military entered Japan, a large number of Japanese women married to Americans, resulting in the birth of a large number of mixed-race children, to this day, many people in Japan have other national blood. In addition to improving genes and improving nutrition, Japan attaches great importance to physical exercise, and physical education for primary and secondary school students is a top priority. After a series of efforts, after several generations, the height of Japanese people can no longer be called short.