It is said that on July 1, 2014, a Japanese magazine called "R25" reported a news about Japanese people becoming shorter.
In this message, it is mentioned that Japan has been conducting health statistics surveys in schools since the Meiji period.
So they have all the height data for young people in Japan, and it's very detailed.
The Meiji period began in 1868 and lasted until 1912, so data on the height of young people in Japan have been recorded since at least 1912.
Then in the message, the twentieth century is highlighted.
In 1950, the height of the Japanese was 162.2 cm, and by 1980, it had grown to 169.7 cm.
During this time, the Japanese changed their height most significantly, growing a whopping eight centimeters.
It was also during this time that people felt that the height of young Japanese people had become taller.
Then in the 21st century, this change is not very obvious, and in the past 20 years, it has grown from 170.7 cm to 170.9 cm, which is 0.2 cm.
Compared with the data of eight centimeters in the last 30 years, this data is not half a star.
It is also for this reason that although the Japanese have changed in height, they have the impression that they have become shorter.
So some Japanese scholars have studied this phenomenon.
One of the scholars, Eito, believes that young people in Japan will be shorter in the future.
This change starts with the shortening of the legs.
He said that before 1955, the leg growth of young people in Japan was in the growth stage, but after this point in time, not only did it not continue to grow, but it also shortened.
You must know that as mentioned before the article, the Japanese from 1950 to 1980 had a period of thirty years when their height changed the fastest, and they grew eight centimeters taller.
But since 1955, the legs of the Japanese have not only not become longer, but have shortened?
What does this mean? It means that the Japanese have become taller.
In recent years, Japanese scholars have studied this phenomenon, for example, after entering the 21st century, the height of the Japanese can be said to have not changed, but the body has grown taller again, which means that the legs have been further shortened.
Japanese scholars predict that this strange phenomenon will lead to shorter Japanese people in the future.
Why? Will there be such a prediction?
According to a survey conducted by Japanese scholars, the amount of exercise for Japanese children is not as large as before, but has decreased a lot.
This means that the development of the body will be slower, which will make the young people in Japan shorter in the future.
The stature has become shorter, the legs have become shorter again, and the height of course will not be much higher.
This is the conclusion given by the scholar Eitsun.
In fact, according to relevant statistics, it has been found that in 2014, the height of Japanese people has begun to decline.
For example, Japanese men and women in 2014 were 1.5 cm and 0.6 cm shorter than those born in 1978.
This data is from the data released by the National Research Center for Adult Education in Japan in 2017.
So from this data, it can actually be seen that the height of young Japanese people is getting shorter.
In contrast, the height of Chinese is constantly getting taller.
Comparison of the height of Chinese and Japanese.
It is said that before World War II, the height of the Chinese was higher than that of the Japanese, and this height advantage can be directly seen.
For example, the Dutch database has data showing that in the early 19th century, the height of Chinese was about ten centimeters higher than the average height of the Japanese, and the average height of the Japanese at that time was only 155 centimeters.
After the end of World War II, the Japanese diet changed, with more meat on the table and more abundant eggs and milk.
The height of the Japanese has changed dramatically.
The height of the Chinese has changed since the nineties of the last century, and the average height is higher than that of the Japanese, with men taller than one centimeter and women 0.6 centimeters taller.
This data was concluded in 2016 after a survey by a team of researchers in the United Kingdom.
So it's already 2024, and I haven't found relevant data, but there should be a lot of people who have a deep understanding.
I don't know, how do today's children grow, one is taller than the other.
The older generation stood in front of them and had to look up.
Children are like bamboo, one is not paying attention, growing upwards, and you don't even know what makes them grow so tall.
After the surprise, I was stunned, and after the stunned, I was basically numb.
After all, I saw too much of this, and that's it, and I got used to it.
Looking at the children now, I feel that the children can't grow up beyond their parents, which is the problem.
So why is this happening?
What is the reason for the change in height?
First of all, it should be a matter of genes.
You must know that Japan itself is an island nation.
What does an island nation mean? Meaning, this is a kind of self-enclosed environment.
In such an environment, it is often characterized by few resources and few items to be used.
From the perspective of biological evolution, in order to continue to sustain themselves, organisms will adapt to the surrounding environment and evolve in the direction of consuming less resources.
What does that mean?
Since there are few resources, it is necessary to evolve the characteristics of consuming fewer resources, and the corresponding is the small size and the slowdown in growth.
If you look at the islanders around the world, they are small and slow to grow, such as the Papuans, the Aitas, and so on.
This phenomenon is known by scientists as island dwarfization.
This probably means that when organisms survive in such isolated islands, they will be miniaturized, and most of this phenomenon will occur in mammals.
According to scientific interpretation, being small means having less space to live and less need for food.
In addition, from the point of view of conceiving the next generation, the pregnancy period required will also be shorter.
Malta, for example, is a micro-state located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, which is made up of several islands.
On top of this, there used to be a European dwarf elephant, the smallest known elephant.
How small?
Adult males are no more than one meter tall and weigh only about 300 kilograms, while females are even lower.
Of course, this European dwarf elephant is currently extinct.
Then there is the Japanese wolf, which is 35 centimeters tall, has 20 centimeters of leg length, is 1 meter long, and weighs 25 kilograms, making it the smallest wolf in the world.
They live in the mountains and forests of Japan, and of course the Japanese wolf was completely extinct in 1905.
The reason was that they were hunted down by the Japanese.
However, when the Japanese wolf became extinct, the Japanese found that after the Japanese wolf was gone, the wild deer herd increased, and the forest was gnawed all over the ground, which had caused Japan to disappear more than 4,400 hectares of forest.
Now the Japanese want to find the Japanese wolf, it is no longer possible, and they can only import it from abroad.
But where to lead, what kind of wolf to lead is troublesome.
Therefore, the Japanese are inherently short in height, which is an inevitable consequence of adapting to the island environment.
It is a characteristic of biological evolution over a long period of time.
It's really hard to change.
Then there is the issue of diet.
One of the most important features of Japanese eating habits is that they eat in small quantities.
Nowadays, information spreads very quickly, and some people in Japan can be seen on the Internet posting a meal of Japanese people.
The rice noodles served are placed here by the Chinese, and it feels like an appetizing amount.
One of the most exaggerated introductions I've ever seen, seven slices of meat with a little leeks, and a glass of beer, is a full-grown Japanese man's dinner.
Beer aside, just these seven slices of meat are enough for a skewer, and it is not enough to stuff the teeth between the Chinese!
Of course, it is understandable that this happens to one person occasionally, but if you look at some surveys on the amount of food eaten by Japanese people, you can believe that a meal of seven slices of meat is really a daily routine.
Say a survey and you will understand.
The OECD is famous, it is an organization of thirty countries with a market economy, and its headquarters is in Paris.
This organization, in 2021, did a survey and found that the obesity rate of Japanese people is very low, only 3.7%, and one of the reasons is eating less.
Take instant noodles as an example, the barrel noodle cakes eaten by Chinese are generally between 100 grams and 140 grams, but this amount, under normal circumstances, is not enough.
In Japan, the weight of a bucket of noodles is only 60 grams.
From here, you can see how small the stomach of the Japanese is.
I've seen a video of a Japanese mother-in-law using a piece of tofu to make three dishes, which would have been fine if there were more side dishes, but the problem is that all three dishes are served with Fluttershy.
Of course, it is also said that it is because of the high prices in Japan, after all, it is not easy to make up for the lost 30 years.
The current state of the Japanese economy is not very good.
But whether it is economic or not, it is easy to understand that you eat too little and are not tall.
In fact, the relationship between height and nutrition has been investigated by scientific research institutions.
For example, in a 2019 survey, the average height of Dutch boys was compared with that of East Timorese boys.
A 19-year-old Dutch boy can reach 183.8 centimeters, and a 19-year-old East Timorese boy is 160.1 centimeters.
These two heights are the highest and the lowest in the world, respectively.
In African countries south of the Sahara Desert, the average height of children and adolescents has remained the same since 1985, and some have become much shorter.
The economic situation in these places is not very good, which means that the nutrition of children and adolescents cannot keep up.
Therefore, in the research results of many researchers, it is believed that genetics is an important factor in determining a person's height, but if you look at the population health and diet of the whole country, it also has a very important influence.