Безымянная Япония: демографическое, историческое и человеческое измерение

M. : ООО "Лингвистика", 2023.

Meshcheryakov A.

The book “Nameless Japan: demographic, historical and human dimension” by 
Alexander Meshcheryakov is devoted to the historical demography. The author 
proceeded from the conviction that the chain of births and deaths of a huge number 
of nameless people forms the basis of the historical process, and without these 
nameless people history itself would be impossible. The book traces the dynamics 
of the population of Japan throughout the history of this country, but the main 
attention is paid to the time after the formation of the Tokugawa shogunate. The 
author analyzes main factors that determined the size of the population: produc-
tion of a food, diseases, family structure, means of birth control, life expectancy, 
migration. Alexander Meshcheryakov also speculates about mutual influence of 
the demographic situation and state policy. The book is full of emotional citations 
of contemporaries regarding the demographic situation in different periods. At 
times, they may not seem fully balanced, but emotions are one of the main quali-
ties that make people human. This approach transforms dull figures into human 
dimension, which gives the book a unique color and provides valuable hints not 
only at history of the Japanese, but at their changing historical psychology, too.

Keywords: Япония, Japan, историческая демография, historical demography

Publication based on the results of: The inner and outer dynamics of cultural processes in the Oriental societies and its traditional foundations: languages, history and religion (2022)