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The story
Korean media picked up a report from Japan’s Nikkei newspaper noting that Japan’s average height has stayed essentially flat since the 1990s, while South Korea and China continue to grow taller. According to 2019 estimates, the average height of 19-year-old men was 172.1cm in Japan versus 175.5cm in South Korea and 175.7cm in China; for women, Japan’s 158.5cm compares to just over 163cm in both South Korea and China — a gap that keeps widening. Japanese height increased significantly over the roughly 100 years since 1896, but growth stalled around the 1990s. On 5ch, users pointed to school lunches, diet, lack of exercise, and sleep habits as possible causes, while others questioned whether South Korea’s and China’s statistics could be trusted — opinion was split.
On September 20, 2026, the South Korean outlet Asia Economy cited a Nikkei article reporting that Japan’s average height has barely grown since the 1990s, widening the gap with South Korea and China.
According to estimates published in 2020 in the medical journal The Lancet by the international research group NCD-RisC, the average height of 19-year-old men as of 2019 was 172.1cm in Japan, compared to 175.5cm in South Korea and 175.7cm in China. For women, it was 158.5cm in Japan, 163.2cm in South Korea, and 163.5cm in China.
Over the roughly 100 years from 1896, the average height of Japanese people rose by 14.6cm for men and 16cm for women. But growth halted once the 1990s arrived, and the average height of 17-year-old boys in recent years, at 170.8cm, is essentially unchanged from the all-time high of 170.9cm.
Source: recordchina.co.jp / original article here
What people said
Even dinosaurs did.
Any kid still awake at 10pm ends up shorter.
South Korean kids sleep even less than that though.
Mine's 172.3, so I guess that counts as average.
Seems like a meat-heavy diet would make people bigger.
Yeah, exactly.
Japan's famous for not eating much meat.
We only eat about 60% as much as other developed countries.
Meat's expensive here too, so diets skew toward carbs.
180cm RIIZE
179cm ZEROBASEONE
178cm ENHYPEN
178cm BTS
177cm SEVENTEEN
177cm ATEEZ
176cm TREASURE
Johnny's (Starto) average heights
178cm Snow Man
177cm SixTONES
176cm WEST.
175cm timelesz
174cm Kis-My-Ft2
173cm SUPER EIGHT
172cm Aぇ! group
Guess Johnny's idols have gotten taller.
— actually shrank by 0.1cm
20231014 ANN NEWS EX (11:56am)
One household cutting ¥3,700/month from food spending
Amid a wave of food price hikes…
20231006 NEWS7 AK (19:00~)
Rising prices push families toward saving, even on kids' extracurriculars
CLOSE UP Gendai 20230718 AK (19:30)
Cutting food spending risks 'undernutrition'!?
How to protect your health in an 'age of price hikes'
Gaia no Yoake 20 20230519 TX (22:00)
[What households cut spending on] (Sony Sonpo survey)
#1 Groceries #2 Daily necessities #3 Eating out
20230118 Oshita Yoko's Wide! Scramble EX (11:42am)
Japan's average height hasn't grown in 30 years
— actually shrank by 0.1cm
Chinese-made clothes run ridiculously small, yet they've got the nerve to say this.
Has to be a lie.
I run into Chinese and Korean tourists all the time at sightseeing spots, and yeah, they really are tall.
Because short women are popular (in Japan).
Could be true.
People evolve toward whatever body type the opposite sex in their region tends to prefer.
Every foreigner who comes to Japan looks huge.
Taller than me, so probably around 180cm.
And foreigners have smaller faces too.
Unlike Japanese people, whose height partly comes from having a big head.
A 170cm Japanese person is basically a 160cm foreigner.
is that really true?
Feels like it should be a bit lower.
I'd guess the real average is more like 168cm.
It's way worse than the '90s lol
The damage from the 'lost 30 years' shows up in all kinds of places lol
That's what happens when you push for 'free' school lunches.
Elementary school lunch
Nursing home meal
The monthly cost is completely different.
Even with nursing care insurance discounts, a nursing home still runs about ¥150,000 a month out of pocket.
And don't drink milk —
it stunts your growth.
Why though?
Milk's pretty nutritious.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
The NCD-RisC estimates used for international height comparisons come from an academic study that statistically pools health survey data from many countries, and no evidence has been presented to support the thread’s claim that South Korea and China are inflating their numbers. Japan’s height rose rapidly thanks to postwar nutritional improvements but leveled off after the 1990s, and one view holds that once nutrition reaches a certain standard, there’s less room left to grow. South Korea and China, by contrast, saw the dietary shifts tied to economic growth arrive later than in Japan, which some argue is why their populations are still getting taller. Commenters on the thread mostly pointed to cost-cutting on food, the quality of school lunches, and lack of exercise or sleep as causes — but it’s worth noting none of these claims come with direct evidence and remain speculation.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread ‘Japan’s average height has been flat for 30 years while China and South Korea rise — netizens ask, “Why such a gap?”‘
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