Doyen of demography studies in Japan at the University of Tokyo, this collection of Akira Hayami’s writings in English brings together for the first time an invaluable resource of comparative primary data on the demographic history of Japan. Containing twenty key essays, the volume is divided into five parts: Tokugawa Japan, Demography through Telescope, Demography through Microscope, Family and Household, Afterwards. It begins with Philip II of Spain and Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the sixteenth century and concludes with Koji Sugi and the emergence of modern population studies in the twentieth century.