Mortality among Japanese singles: A re-investigation*

This analysis uses prefecture-level data on deaths by cause and marriage type in Japan to test hypotheses which relate the ‘arranged marriage’ system to cause-specific mortality patterns among single Japanese men and women. The results from this analysis, combined with earlier findings, confirm the importance of the mate selection process in producing atypically high and rapidly declining mortality rates among Japanese singles, and suggest that the presence of tuberculosis, along with several other diseases, was an important component of the screening process for potential spouses. The findings also highlight the difficulties of identifying marriage selection mechanisms in industrialized societies from cause of death data.