Measurements of ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and of home blood pressure (HBP) as an adjunct to casual/clinic BP (CBP) measurements are currently widely used for the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. We have monitored a rural cohort of people from the population of Ohasama, Japan, with respect to their prognosis and have previously reported that ABP level and HBP level are superior to CBP level for the prediction of cardiovascular mortality.Our results also confirmed that short-term blood pressure variability (as measured every 30 min) was independently associated with cardiovascular mortality. In addition, research has recently focused on isolated systolic hypertension and pulse pressure as independent risk factors for poor cardiovascular prognosis. The Ohasama study also clearly demonstrated that isolated systolic hypertension and increased pulse pressure, as assessed by HBP, were associated with an increase in the risk of cardiovascular mortality. Concerning diurnal blood pressure variation, the incidence of stroke increased with an increased length of observation in dippers using antihypertensive medication but not in non-dippers using antihypertensive medication. In contrast, the relative hazard for mortality increased in non-dippers and inverted dippers. These results suggest a cause-and-effect relationship for both dippers and non-dippers.The Ohasama study showed that the level and variability of hypertension as assessed by ABP and HBP are independent predictiors of cardiovascular mortality.