INTRODUCTORY

We have three main purposes in this chapter. First, to examine the structure and size of households in pre-industrial Japan. Second, to present the results of the historical demographic research which is being carried out by the study group at Keio University on the demographic history of changes in household size during the Tokugawa era (1603–1868). Finally, to present material which can be used in international cross comparison with the results presented by Peter Laslett for England.

Fortunately the myth that the evolution of the small family was a product of industrialisation does not exist in Japan. The most common explanation given today is that small families or households consisting of one married couple and several children became common throughout the nation between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, and took the place of the larger households of earlier periods, many or most of which had more than one married couple apiece. There are household registers of a much earlier period in the eighth and ninth centuries and the fragments which survive indicate a very large household size, perhaps as big as 20 to 30 persons per household on average. After a long break in the records, suitable material for comparison becomes available again in the seventeenth century. Notwithstanding considerable variation from region to region, the great majority of Japanese households consisted of from 5 to 10 members during that period.