Abstract
An anthropo metric and radiological investigation of school children at Nakijin On Okinawa was undertaken by the author, as one of the members of the investigation commmittee of Okinawa of the Union of Nine Scientific Societies, in November 1971.In the resent paper, Physical growth of the children of Okinawa was discussed and compared with that in some Japanese local groups.The children of Okinawa seemed to pass through childhood to adolessence at about 13 years for the boys and 12 years for the girls.The adolescent spurt occured earlier and the time of its spurt was more prolonged in the children of Okinawa as compared with the Japanese children in general. The secular trend in growth was observed in the data of Okinawa, correspond-ing to the general trend in Japanese and other populations.From comparison of the b value (slope of line) in childhood allometry, a closer relationship between the Ainu and Okinawa islanders and between Kagoshima and Amami- Oshima was suggested.
