Overreading diary 05　

I was interested in population decline and this book caught my attention.
Ever since I was a child, I have wondered what would happen if the number of human beings continued to increase at an ever-increasing rate. In fact, it seems that the increase in the number of people is the destiny of Homo sapiens.
In recent years, many new discoveries have been made about the Jomon period in particular, including climate, food, and population, and these discoveries have resulted in this book.

That population growth has not occurred uniformly, but has been in four major waves.
First, there was an increase due to the warming of the climate during the Jomon period and a drastic decrease due to the cooling of the climate. It is a fresh surprise that the population of eastern Japan was larger at this time. Next, rice cultivation was brought from the continent, and the increase was due to the stabilization of food supply. During this period, the country of Japan was established, but probably around the 8th century, it began to reach the limits of agricultural production and entered a period of stagnation.

The third wave, which began in the 14th and 5th centuries, was so large that it caused a population revolution in the 17th century. This was due to the shift from master-operated agriculture based on the labor of indentured peasants to smallholder farming based on family labor. It is interesting to note that the market economy that was being developed made it possible for farmers to earn profits and encouraged them to devise ways to increase their own production, and that small family-based farming was more efficient for this purpose.
In the 18th century, however, the economic development of the country came to a standstill, and the number of farmers began to decline. Famine and epidemics caused by the cold climate contributed to the decline, but it is interesting to note that the existence of large cities also contributed to the decline. The high number of unmarried people in the cities led to a low birth rate, and the overcrowded conditions resulted in a high mortality rate due to disasters and diseases. The decline in population in cities, the key to economic development, is a story that anticipates the situation of our time! The author even writes, “Cities functioned as population regulators, a kind of ant lion’s den!

The dramatic increase due to industrialization in the 20th century, and the fourth wave of industrialization in the 21st century, have already begun to stagnate and decline… Well, it has been a long story, but I enjoyed the vivid history of population, which makes us reconsider the state of our time just by following the numbers.