Discussion Papers In Economics
And Business

Mining pollution and infant health in modern Japan:
from village/ town statistics of infant mortality
Keisuke Moriya and Kenichi Tomobe

Discussion Paper 19-16

November 2019

Graduate School of Economics
Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, JAPANMining pollution and infant health in modern Japan: from*village/ town statistics of infant mortality
Keisuke Moriya†and Kenichi Tomobe‡
November 2019

Abstract
The purpose of the paper is to explain the relationship between infant mortality rate (IMR) and mining
pollution. In Japan, the pollution became a problem in various places in the 1960’s, but it had occurred sincethen. For example, around Ashio Copper Mine in Tochigi Prefecture, the mining pollution had been occurring
since 1880’s, and it had become a social problem in Japan. In our previous analysis, the IMR in Japan havedeclined irreversibly since 1920’s because people got over the beriberi and syphilis, but in the specific area,such as mining area, the IMR remained still high rate in 1930’s. So we will consider the relationship between
the IMR and mining pollution.

Key words: infant mortality, mining pollution, environmental pollution
JEL classification: N35, N55, Q53, J13* We appreciate conference participants at The Fifth Biennial Conference of East Asian Environmental
History (National Cheng Kung U.) for helpful comments. Both the Grant-in-Aid for scientific research of“the anthropometric history of school boys and girls and its historical analysis of socio-economic factors inmodern rural Japan”, (2016-2019, Hitotsubashi University, Ken’ichi Tomobe, No. 16K03775) and the Grantin-Aid for scientific research of “Historical Changes in the Standard of Living and Socioeconomic Structuresin Japan: Perspectives from Household Financial Diaries”, (2019-2022, Hitotsubashi University, Yukinobu
Kitamura, No.19H00593) offered financial support for this research.
†Corresponding auther, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, 2-1 Naka, Kunitachi,
Tokyo, 186-8601, Japan.
E-mail address: k3000scw@gmail.com‡ Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, 2-1 Naka, Kunitachi, Tokyo, 186-8601, Japan.
E-mail address: kenichi.tomobe@r.hit-u.ac.jp

Environmental pollution and infant mortality
In the historical studies, the focus of the relationship between environmental pollution and infant mortality
has been air pollution. Many researches have focused on analyzing the effects of air pollution, including
research by Bailey, Timothy J, Kris Inwood (2018). Their research on the effects of coal use in Britain has
identified negative effects on the infant mortality, and the health of children in the late 19th century. There
are also many studies on air pollution and the health of children in developing countries. Air pollution has
been regarded as a problem since the Industrial Revolution. In Japan, air pollution of sulfur oxides andnitrogen oxides caused by industrialization, including the smoke damage of Besshi Copper Mine andYokkaichi Asthma, has become a social problem. Moreover, the WHO report (2017) also states that air
pollution is the biggest cause of infant mortality from environmental pollution.
Many researches on water pollution have focused on epidemiology, or the inadequacies of water supply
and sewage systems in densely populated towns. Cain and Rotella found that sanitary reforms were importantin reducing infant mortality in the United States. In the WHO report (2017), infant deaths due to waterpollution accounted for a large weight, and the cause was diarrheal disease due to inaccessibility of clean
drinking water due to insufficient public health. It is also related to the ongoing threat of waterborne infectious
diseases, especially in developing countries, and countermeasures are urgently needed. For this reason, there
have been few researches on history of water pollution and soil pollution due to mining pollution.
However, in Japan, very unique statistics on infant mortality have existed. The group called Aiikukai has
compiled statistics on births, stillbirths, and infant deaths in 1933 for each town and village all over the Japanand the Ministry of Health and Welfare has compiled the same ones in 1938. Bailey (2018) uses a household
date and is characterized by the ability to investigate individual person. There are no such statistics in Japan,
but it is possible to analyze the geographic aspect of the infant mortality rate. In Japan, heavy metal poisoning
due to mining pollution has been pointed out for a long time, but there are few historical studies. Therefore,
in this study, we would like to analyze the spread of mine pollution using the unique statistics.
As mentioned above, historical researches on environmental pollution and infant mortality, as well as
modern research, have focused on air pollution. In particular, historical studies have discussed therelationship between coal-based air pollution and infant mortality. Bailey (2018) using Army Service
Records stated that air pollution negatively affects the health of children and post-adult height. Karen et al(2016) studied the effects of the installation of coal-fired electricity generating plants in the United States
between 1930 and 1962, finding that this increased infant mortality within a 30-miles. These studies haveshown that air pollution has the negative impact on health of children and later life.
On the other hand, there are few studies on water pollution and air pollution in historical research, andthere are some studies focusing on the modern era. According to the study by Michael Greenstone and Rema

Hanna (2014), there was no significant difference in water quality control in India, although there was a
decline in infant mortality due to air pollution control. The research of Elizabeth Brainerd and Nidhiya
Menon (2014) examined that the difference in seasonal planted crops in India changed the concentration ofpesticides in water due to the use of pesticides, which negatively affects the health of infants. And it has beenfound that the poor are most affected. Guojun He and Jeffery M. Perloff (2016) found that invisible
1contamination of surface water in China increased infant mortality, but when pollution becomes more visible,
people take action to avoid polluted water. Therefore, the infant mortality rate will be improved.

Kyi Mar Wai et al (2017) examined heavy metal poisoning and infant mortality. It was indicated that
cadmium exposure was associated with low birth weight (weight less than 2500 g at birth), and low birthweight increased infant mortality. It was also said that there was no relationship with premature birth. But
according to Jie Yang et al (2016), in China, there was a relationship between cadmium concentration andpremature birth. Although it may vary depending on the amount of exposure between groups, it is undeniable
that heavy metal poisoning cause premature birth, low birth weight, and the resulting increase in infantmortality. In Japan, during late 19th century, there was the mine damage called the Ashio Copper Mine
Poisoning Incident. In the mine damage that spread over Gunma Prefecture and Tochigi Prefecture near
Tokyo, the flooding of the Watarase River contaminated the soil with heavy metals, withered rice andmulberry, and then was exposed to repeated flooding and heavy metal contamination, resulting in a decline
in fertility rates. There were also increases in stillbirth and infant mortality.
Also, from the 1920s to the 1960s, the unusual disease called “Itai-itai disease”, which caused severe pain
throughout the body and broke bones, was prevalent in the Jintsu River basin in Toyama Prefecture. In thelater studies, the cause was drainage from the upstream mine, which contained a large amount of cadmium,
which was accumulated in fish and food, causing heavy metal poisoninginside the human body through meals.
In the light of these results might expect significant effects of heavy metal poisoning. Nevertheless, there
are few historical studies on heavy metal poisoning caused by mining pollution. Although soil contamination
caused by heavy metal poisoning have been discussed, there are few studies on the effects of it on the humanbody. Therefore, in this paper, I would like to find the negative effects caused by mining pollution, especiallythe relationship with infant mortality.
Mechanism of water pollution and soil pollution

The mechanism of water pollution and soil pollution is as follows. When ores are mined, unnecessaryores are discarded. After they are exposed to rainwater, heavy metals are run out, and the water is mixed
and contaminated in rivers and soils. In addition, polluted water containing heavy metals and mud
generated during the beneficiation, and waste ores and wastewater containing heavy metals generated
during metal refining. These wastes pollute rivers and soil. It can also be polluted by floods. Because alarge amount of timber is used during refining, flooding is occurred and a large amount of waste ore
thrown into ponds and rivers run out. Moreover, SOx and NOx cause the trees around the mine to wither,so the water retention capacity of the mountain is lost and it causes frequent flooding. Once a flood
occurs, waste ore that has accumulated in large quantities in the upstream reaches the downstream. Since
waste ore contains a lot of heavy metals, the soil and rivers in the downstream area are immediately
contaminated with heavy metals. Heavy metals accumulate in fish and crops from contaminated waterand soil, and these accumulate in the human body that ate foods, so people are polluted by heavy metal.
In particular, when the mother becomes poisoned with heavy metals, the fetus and infants are more2

affected due to bioconcentration 1 , and the IMR and the stillbirth rates increase. Because of thismechanism, the IMR is not necessarily high in the towns and villages near the mine, but it is sometimes
very high in the towns and villages in the middle and lower reaches of the river.
Characteristics of the Statistics
The data we use for analysis is very unique. It was compiled by the group called Aiikukai, and statistics
on birth, stillbirth, and infant death in 1933 were compiled by each prefecture, county, and town, village.
Aiikukai was the imperial foundation founded by the Emperor of Japan in 1934. In the early 1930’s, publichealth centers and the Ministry of Welfare were not established in Japan. The government gave the importantrole of protecting children and mothers health to the Aiikukai to promote health research and development.
At that time, Japan had no Ministry of Health or Health andno health care for children and mothers. This wasa statistic prepared by the research group and can be analyzed by each town and village. The “Statistics on
Birth, Stillbirth and Infant Death by National Prefectural County, Municipalities” created by the Ministry of
Health and Welfare, established in 1938, was the same survey conducted in 1938 by the Aiikukai. These twostatistics were researched in the same way, so it is possible to analyze the time series by villages and towns.
Analysis
In this analysis, the villages and towns around the Yoneshiro River in Akita Prefecture were targeted. Akita
Prefecture is located in the northern part of Japan, and the Yoneshiro River basin has many mines upstream,including the Kosaka Mine and Osarizawa Mine (Figure 1). At the Kosaka River near the Kosaka Mine, it
was polluted by the drainage from the mine and fish could no longer be seen. At the Osarizawa Mine, waste
and sludge containing heavy metals were washed away by the floods, causing significant damage. It has been
the area known to have been damaged by mining pollution. The analysis targets are 65 towns and villages in
Kazuno County, Kitaakita County and Yamamoto County aournd the Yoneshiro River. We use the infantmortality rate (IMR) and the stillbirth rate (SBR) in 1938 as the objective variables and the linear distancefrom Yoneshiro River where the source of mining pollution as the explanatory variable.
The analysis results are shown in Table 1, 2 and Figure2. The distance from the Yoneshiro Riveer and the
IMR were found to be negatively related. On the other hand, no correlation was obtained for the distance andthe SBR. As a result, it was found that the IMR was higher around the Yoneshiro River due to river pollution
because of mining pollution. This can be clear by looking at Figure 3. This Figure is created using GIS. The
IMR is not necessarily high near the mine, but the IMR is high in the middle and lower reaches of theYoneshiro River. Near the mine, the river does not accumulate so much in the rapid stream in the upstream
area, and there is a deposit of mine from the place where the flow becomes slow. In the county’s date, IMR
was 131.4 for Akita Prefecture as a whole, 145.3 for Kazuno County, 166.9 for Kitaakita County, and 144.7
for Yamamoto County. This result may state that the mining pollution affected infant mortlity in the three

Bioconcentration is the phenomenon in which certain chemical substances are concentrated in theorganism through the food chain in the ecosystem.
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counties as a whole. In addition, Akebono Village, Miyagawa Village and Nishikigi Village in Kazuno County
had the SBR of over 100 ‰ both in 1933 and 1938. The fact that the high SBRn the villages near the mine
may also suggest that the mining pollution give negative effects on the stillbirth.
Figure 1: Akita Prefecture in Japan and the Yoneshiro River and mines

Akita Prefecture

Akita
Yoneshiro River※

Prefecture△:mine4

Figure 2: Scatterplot of IMR and distance from the Yoneshiro River
300.000

1938IMR(‰)

250.000
200.000
150.000
y = -0.0015x + 169.53

100.000
50.000
0.000
0

5000

10000

15000

Distance from Yoneshiro River(km)Table1: IMR and distance from the Yoneshiro RiverIMRtDistance from the Yoneshiro River-2.046※

F-statistic

4.188

R-squared

0.062

observations

65

Regression Analysis (IMR)※=Significant at the 5 percent level
Table 2: SBR and distance from the Yoneshiro River

SBRtDistance from the Yoneshiro River-0.575F-statistic

0.331

R-squared

0.005

observations

65

5

20000

25000

Figure 3: IMR around the Yoneshiro River

IMR(‰)

Conclusion
This paper clarified the relationship between environmental pollution, especially mining pollution andinfant mortality in Japan in the 1930s. Around the Yoneshiro River, in Akita Prefecture, heavy metals
accumulated in the mother's body due to rivers contaminated with mining pollution, which was responsible
for the high IMR. Moreover, it was not clarified by the regression analysis, the high SBR was recorded in thevillages near the mines, suggesting that the mining pollution give negative effects on the stillbirth. However,the IMR is not only related to environmental pollution, but also is related to nutrition, the local medical
situation and the local historical background. So in the future, we would like to expand the case analysis
to the whole of Japan and to analyze relationship between the IMR and the other factors.

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