Mortality responses to rice price fluctuations and household factors in a farming village in central Tokugawa Japan

Abstract

Drawing data from the annual local population registers called shumon-aratame-cho (SAC), this study examines the patterns and covariates of mortality by sex and life stage in the farming village of Nishijo in central Japan in 1773–1869. The discrete-time event history analysis of mortality in the village offers three major findings. First, mortality responses to rice price fluctuations varied greatly by residents' sex and life stage. Second, coresident kin were important for survival throughout the life course, though the magnitude and nature of the mortality effects of coresident kin differed across sex and age groups. Third, household resources and positions that individuals occupied within a household influenced chances of survival especially in adult and elderly years.