At the time before World War Two, the physical constitution of school children (PCSC), i.e., height, weight, girth, etc., in the Kyushu district, (one of the main islands in Japan), was almost the same as that of the national average. After the 'War, PCSC throughout Japan, continued to improve until recently, as a result of the increases in the standard of living. However, the mean PCSC of seven prefectures in the Kyushu district have been found to be lower than that of the national average. It was also found that the levels of nutri tional intake, which is considered to deeply affect physical growth, have been lower in the Kyushu district than those in the other districts. So, in this study, the annual values of PCSC reported from the Education Ministry and of nutritional intake as calculated from the National Nutrition Survey carried out by the Welfare Ministry, is compared between the Kyushu district, with those of the national average, the Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures and the Shikoku district. The results obtained are as follows; 1) The annual average height of school children, aged 15 years, were lower in all the prefectures of the Kyushu district than in the other districts throughout Japan during the years 1964-1976. The average height in the Okinawa prefecture were lower than those in the Kyushu district. 2) When data from the National Nutrition Survey was compared to PCSC, it was found that in 1964 and 1967, both mean values of nutritional intake and PCSC for children, aged 17 years, were lower in the districts of Kyushu and Shikoku, (another main island in Japan that neighbors Kyushu), than those in the other districts. 3) The results of the Farmer's Nutrition Survey, carried out annually by the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry shows that levels in the Kyushu district were lower than those throughout the whole country. This finding supports the differences in nutritional intake between the Kyushu district and the other districts, as reported in the National Nutrition Survey. 4) The cohort values of height of school children, aged 17 years in the year 1975, were calculated from the annual results of the Education Ministry and compared between the national average, the Okinawa prefecture, and the Kagoshima prefecture, with the lowest PCSC vlaues in the seven prefecture in the Kyushu district. The difference between the Kagoshima prefecture and the national average, and the Okinawa prefecture were already observed at the age of 5-6 years, and continued to the age of 17 years. 5) Annual mean values of heights of children, aged 5 years, were compared between national average and th Kagoshima prefecture. Those in the Kagoshima prefecture showed a trend of approaching the national average as time passed. The above facts suggest that the difference in PCSC between the Kyushu district and the whole country will decrease and probably disappear in the near future. However, that does not appear to be the case of the Okinawa prefecture.
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