Fig. 7

The relationship between the year of birth and average adult height for Japanese born after 1870, based on government statistics. The data for students for the years 1924–1927 and for the general population for the years 1919–1926 are for height measured at ages 21–35 years. All other data are for height measured at age 20–24 years. “The average adult height of Japanese young men and women increased with time, especially in the generations of the 1940s and 1950s after World War II. However, the rate of change has slowed in generations born after the mid-1960s and has stopped in generations born after 1980” (translated from the original Japanese [87]). The upper two plots are for men and lower two plots for women. The symbols indicate: men women—high SES 20-year-old students, ● low SES 20-year-old conscripts (men), ◊ men women—low SES 20-year-old general population, men women—post-1975 students and general population.