Sterblichkeitsentwicklung in Japan und Deutschland seit 1950

Summary

The paper describes at first the mortality tables of Japan and Germany for men and women beginning with the year 1950. It is seen that mortality in Japan showed a considerable improvement until {dy1965}, so that nowadays the Japanese death rates in some age groups such as infants, young men (ages 15 to 25) and elderly men (ages 50 to 70) lie below the German death rates. The causes of death are investigated in detail for wide age groupings and for all ages combined. A careful short to medium term prognosis of the development of causes of death is attempted on the basis of their hitherto observed changes.

It emerges that in spite of about the same total mortality the causes of death in Japan and Germany differ considerably. While Japan shows the higher death rates for infectious diseases and, in particular, for vascular lesions of the central nervous system, Germany has the higher mortality from traffic accidents and especially from heart diseases. The continuing increase of the deaths by diseases of the heart make it seem likely that the adverse development of mortality among men of advanced ages will become more pronounced in Germany than in Japan in the near future and may spread to the middle age groups.