vitrine · JP · room 1 of 7
The 1950s room
The composite family. Each room is a statistical composite, assembled from separate distributions with separate sources. The family at the median income did not also have the median house, the median car, and the median diet. No single family described here ever existed; each fact tells you, in its provenance drawer, which real population it was measured from.
No curator's route yet
The room is open; the route is not written
This room's facts are sourced and complete. The editorial route through them has not been authored yet — the ledgers below are the exhibit.
era-graded wash · absent technology isn't drawn · every glyph opens its record
The complete room
All six ledgers, including the curator's route above and the records around it. Value, tier, measured population, and source on every line.
The home
1 exhibitno reliable record accessible onlineD
Housing tenure, floor area, and amenities, 1950sdocumented gap
n/a
Population measuredDwellings and households in sampled enumeration districts nationwide. Excludes diplomatic facilities, Imperial property, jails, SDF/US military bases.
Source recordStatistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) · 2025 · Tier D
Full record
Housing and Land Survey (住宅・土地統計調査) — via Japan Statistical Yearbook
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2025 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The Housing and Land Survey summary results used by this project are extracted from the Japan Statistical Yearbook, which begins English-language housing tables in 1988. The 1950s HLS data is not in the archive.
Source note: Quinquennial since 1948 (first survey was a census). Renamed from 'Housing Survey' to 'Housing and Land Survey' in 1998. English stat.go.jp pages provide only survey outlines; summary results extracted from Japan Statistical Yearbook (JSY) Excel tables: JSY 2016 (65nenkan) tables 21-1/21-5/21-8 covering 1988–2013, JSY 2026 (75nenkan) tables 21-1/21-5/21-6 covering 2013–2023. Homeownership rate, floor area, rooms per dwelling available. Basic bath/toilet facility data NOT in English JSY tables — needs e-Stat.
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2025 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The Housing and Land Survey summary results used by this project are extracted from the Japan Statistical Yearbook, which begins English-language housing tables in 1988. The 1950s HLS data is not in the archive.
Source note: Quinquennial since 1948 (first survey was a census). Renamed from 'Housing Survey' to 'Housing and Land Survey' in 1998. English stat.go.jp pages provide only survey outlines; summary results extracted from Japan Statistical Yearbook (JSY) Excel tables: JSY 2016 (65nenkan) tables 21-1/21-5/21-8 covering 1988–2013, JSY 2026 (75nenkan) tables 21-1/21-5/21-6 covering 2013–2023. Homeownership rate, floor area, rooms per dwelling available. Basic bath/toilet facility data NOT in English JSY tables — needs e-Stat.
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
The budget
2 exhibits¥29,169A
Workers' household monthly income, 1955observed record
JPY per month, nominal (workers' households, all cities)
Population measuredTwo-or-more-person households (workers' households and all households), Japan. Urban-only before 1962; national from 1963.
Source recordStatistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) · 2025 · Tier A
Full record
Family Income and Expenditure Survey (家計調査) — long-run time-series tables
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2025 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Basis: Monthly figure
Curator note: From the FIES long-run tables. 1955: workers' households (two-or-more-person), all cities. The pre-1962 FIES covered cities only — rural and agricultural households are excluded. This is a workers' household average, not a four-person family median.
Source note: Monthly survey of household income and expenditure, continuous from 1946. Three universes: workers' households, all two-or-more-person households, one-person households. Expenditure classification revised in 1981 (methodology seam). Long-run Excel tables downloaded: fies-18-02-a.xls (workers' households, all cities, 1948–1962), fies-a18-2.xls (workers' households, 1963–2017), fies-a18-1.xls (all two-or-more-person households, 1963–2017). Before 1962 the survey covered cities only — pre-1962 facts carry the urban-rural-split caveat. URL CORRECTION 2026-08-14: the Statistics Bureau reorganized the English site and the old /data/kakei/tsuki/ deep link 404s; repointed at the FIES English landing page, which links the outline, results, and Q&A pages (1560–1563). The long-run Excel tables cited above remain in samples/.
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Values are shown in period money
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Assumption: FIES was urban-only before 1962
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2025 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Basis: Monthly figure
Curator note: From the FIES long-run tables. 1955: workers' households (two-or-more-person), all cities. The pre-1962 FIES covered cities only — rural and agricultural households are excluded. This is a workers' household average, not a four-person family median.
Source note: Monthly survey of household income and expenditure, continuous from 1946. Three universes: workers' households, all two-or-more-person households, one-person households. Expenditure classification revised in 1981 (methodology seam). Long-run Excel tables downloaded: fies-18-02-a.xls (workers' households, all cities, 1948–1962), fies-a18-2.xls (workers' households, 1963–2017), fies-a18-1.xls (all two-or-more-person households, 1963–2017). Before 1962 the survey covered cities only — pre-1962 facts carry the urban-rural-split caveat. URL CORRECTION 2026-08-14: the Statistics Bureau reorganized the English site and the old /data/kakei/tsuki/ deep link 404s; repointed at the FIES English landing page, which links the outline, results, and Q&A pages (1560–1563). The long-run Excel tables cited above remain in samples/.
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Values are shown in period money
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Assumption: FIES was urban-only before 1962
¥18,300A
Average monthly wage, establishments with 30+ workers, 1955observed record
JPY per month, nominal (all industries, establishments with 30 or more regular workers)
Population measuredVaries by table — see individual source registrations for each survey.
Source recordStatistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) · 2025 · Tier A
Full record
Japan Statistical Yearbook (日本統計年鑑) — historical tables
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2025 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Basis: Monthly figure
Curator note: From the Japan Statistical Yearbook historical wage tables. 1955: average monthly cash earnings for all industries, establishments with 30 or more regular workers. Establishment-based payroll data, not household income.
Source note: Annual compendium republishing data from all major surveys in consolidated form. JSY 2016 (65nenkan) covers 1988–2013; JSY 2026 (75nenkan) covers 2013–2023. Historical wage data for 1955/1965 from scanned JSY 1966 table 255 (image file ys1965_t213.jpg, ys1966_t210.jpg). Used as the retrieval vehicle for HLS housing data (tables 21-1, 21-5, 21-6, 21-8) since the English HLS pages publish only outlines.
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Values are shown in period money
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Assumption: FIES was urban-only before 1962
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2025 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Basis: Monthly figure
Curator note: From the Japan Statistical Yearbook historical wage tables. 1955: average monthly cash earnings for all industries, establishments with 30 or more regular workers. Establishment-based payroll data, not household income.
Source note: Annual compendium republishing data from all major surveys in consolidated form. JSY 2016 (65nenkan) covers 1988–2013; JSY 2026 (75nenkan) covers 2013–2023. Historical wage data for 1955/1965 from scanned JSY 1966 table 255 (image file ys1965_t213.jpg, ys1966_t210.jpg). Used as the retrieval vehicle for HLS housing data (tables 21-1, 21-5, 21-6, 21-8) since the English HLS pages publish only outlines.
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Values are shown in period money
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Assumption: FIES was urban-only before 1962
The table
1 exhibitno reliable record accessible onlineD
Consumption and food share, 1950sdocumented gap
n/a
Population measuredTwo-or-more-person households (workers' households and all households), Japan. Urban-only before 1962; national from 1963.
Source recordStatistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) · 2025 · Tier D
Full record
Family Income and Expenditure Survey (家計調査) — long-run time-series tables
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2025 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The FIES all-household consumption and food-share series used by this project begins in 1965. The 1955 food basket is not in the archive.
Source note: Monthly survey of household income and expenditure, continuous from 1946. Three universes: workers' households, all two-or-more-person households, one-person households. Expenditure classification revised in 1981 (methodology seam). Long-run Excel tables downloaded: fies-18-02-a.xls (workers' households, all cities, 1948–1962), fies-a18-2.xls (workers' households, 1963–2017), fies-a18-1.xls (all two-or-more-person households, 1963–2017). Before 1962 the survey covered cities only — pre-1962 facts carry the urban-rural-split caveat. URL CORRECTION 2026-08-14: the Statistics Bureau reorganized the English site and the old /data/kakei/tsuki/ deep link 404s; repointed at the FIES English landing page, which links the outline, results, and Q&A pages (1560–1563). The long-run Excel tables cited above remain in samples/.
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Assumption: FIES was urban-only before 1962
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2025 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The FIES all-household consumption and food-share series used by this project begins in 1965. The 1955 food basket is not in the archive.
Source note: Monthly survey of household income and expenditure, continuous from 1946. Three universes: workers' households, all two-or-more-person households, one-person households. Expenditure classification revised in 1981 (methodology seam). Long-run Excel tables downloaded: fies-18-02-a.xls (workers' households, all cities, 1948–1962), fies-a18-2.xls (workers' households, 1963–2017), fies-a18-1.xls (all two-or-more-person households, 1963–2017). Before 1962 the survey covered cities only — pre-1962 facts carry the urban-rural-split caveat. URL CORRECTION 2026-08-14: the Statistics Bureau reorganized the English site and the old /data/kakei/tsuki/ deep link 404s; repointed at the FIES English landing page, which links the outline, results, and Q&A pages (1560–1563). The long-run Excel tables cited above remain in samples/.
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Assumption: FIES was urban-only before 1962
The day
1 exhibitno reliable record accessible onlineD
Working hours, 1950sdocumented gap
n/a
Population measuredEstablishments with 30 or more regular workers, all surveyed industries (total), Japan. Calendar year averages.
Source recordMinistry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) · 2025 · Tier D
Full record
Monthly Labour Survey (毎月勤労統計調査) — long-term actual data
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), 2025 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The Monthly Labour Survey all-industry total (30+ regular workers) begins in 1970. Scanned yearbook data gives 1955/1965 wages but not hours. Without hours, no hourly wage or affordability anchor can be computed.
Source note: Monthly payroll survey of employment, wages (total cash earnings), and working hours. Long-term actual CSV (mls-long-term-actual.csv) covers 1960–2026 at industry level; all-industry (TL) total available from 1970. Data for 1955/1965 taken from scanned Japan Statistical Yearbook pages. 'Total cash earnings' includes regular pay (所定内給与) and special pay (特別に支給された給与).
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), 2025 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The Monthly Labour Survey all-industry total (30+ regular workers) begins in 1970. Scanned yearbook data gives 1955/1965 wages but not hours. Without hours, no hourly wage or affordability anchor can be computed.
Source note: Monthly payroll survey of employment, wages (total cash earnings), and working hours. Long-term actual CSV (mls-long-term-actual.csv) covers 1960–2026 at industry level; all-industry (TL) total available from 1970. Data for 1955/1965 taken from scanned Japan Statistical Yearbook pages. 'Total cash earnings' includes regular pay (所定内給与) and special pay (特別に支給された給与).
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
What had arrived
1 exhibitno reliable record accessible onlineD
Household durable goods and communications, 1950sdocumented gap
n/a
Population measuredTwo-or-more-person households nationwide (separate data for one-person households). Excludes restaurants/boarding houses, foreign households (pre-2019).
Source recordStatistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) · 2009 · Tier D
Full record
National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure (全国消費実態調査) — durable goods summaries
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2009 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure publishes English durable-goods summaries from 1999 onward. Earlier survey waves (including the 1950s) are not in the archive in English.
Source note: Quinquennial deep-dive survey since 1959. Publishes 'Summary of Results Concerning Major Durable Goods' with possession rates (% of households) and ownership quantities (per 1,000 households) for ~40 categories. English HTML summaries available for 1999, 2004, 2009. The 2014 and 2019 (renamed) surveys do not publish English durable-goods summaries — data only via e-Stat (Japanese). Main data tables are image-based (GIF) on HTML pages; numbers transcribed from narrative text.
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2009 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: The National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure publishes English durable-goods summaries from 1999 onward. Earlier survey waves (including the 1950s) are not in the archive in English.
Source note: Quinquennial deep-dive survey since 1959. Publishes 'Summary of Results Concerning Major Durable Goods' with possession rates (% of households) and ownership quantities (per 1,000 households) for ~40 categories. English HTML summaries available for 1999, 2004, 2009. The 2014 and 2019 (renamed) surveys do not publish English durable-goods summaries — data only via e-Stat (Japanese). Main data tables are image-based (GIF) on HTML pages; numbers transcribed from narrative text.
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
A day's work buys
1 exhibitno reliable record accessible onlineD
Affordability comparisons, 1950sdocumented gap
n/a
Population measuredEstablishments with 30 or more regular workers, all surveyed industries (total), Japan. Calendar year averages.
Source recordMinistry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) · 2025 · Tier D
Full record
Monthly Labour Survey (毎月勤労統計調査) — long-term actual data
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), 2025 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: Without an hourly wage (no hours data) or durable-goods prices in the archive, hours-of-work-to-afford comparisons cannot be computed for the 1950s. The monthly wage figures above are the available wage references.
Source note: Monthly payroll survey of employment, wages (total cash earnings), and working hours. Long-term actual CSV (mls-long-term-actual.csv) covers 1960–2026 at industry level; all-industry (TL) total available from 1970. Data for 1955/1965 taken from scanned Japan Statistical Yearbook pages. 'Total cash earnings' includes regular pay (所定内給与) and special pay (特別に支給された給与).
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), 2025 · source
Confidence: D — Scholarly estimate
Curator note: Without an hourly wage (no hours data) or durable-goods prices in the archive, hours-of-work-to-afford comparisons cannot be computed for the 1950s. The monthly wage figures above are the available wage references.
Source note: Monthly payroll survey of employment, wages (total cash earnings), and working hours. Long-term actual CSV (mls-long-term-actual.csv) covers 1960–2026 at industry level; all-industry (TL) total available from 1970. Data for 1955/1965 taken from scanned Japan Statistical Yearbook pages. 'Total cash earnings' includes regular pay (所定内給与) and special pay (特別に支給された給与).
Assumption: The composite family
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Confidence & flags
A — official statistical series
B — official microdata, computed by this project
C — reconstructed from period surveys
D — scholarly estimate
Gap — no reliable record; shown as the gap it is
Reading the atlas
Provenance is in the scan-line: every exhibit's row names its value, confidence tier, the population actually measured, and the source record. Chart points and stage glyphs open the same record.
Rising series draw in petrol, falling in ember. Absent technology isn't drawn — a bare house says more than ghosts.