vitrine · JP · room 3 of 7
The 1970s 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, 1970sdocumented 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 1970s 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 1970s 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¥236,152A
Workers' household monthly income, 1975observed record
JPY per month, nominal (workers' households, national)
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. 1975: workers' households (two-or-more-person), national coverage. 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
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. 1975: workers' households (two-or-more-person), national coverage. 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
¥177,213A
Average monthly wage, establishments with 30+ workers, 1975observed record
JPY per month, nominal (all surveyed industries, establishments with 30 or more regular workers)
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 A
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: A — Official series
Basis: Monthly figure
Curator note: From the Monthly Labour Survey long-term actual data. 1975: average monthly total cash earnings for all surveyed industries, establishments with 30 or more regular workers. Includes regular and special pay. Establishment-based payroll data, not household income.
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: Values are shown in period money
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), 2025 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Basis: Monthly figure
Curator note: From the Monthly Labour Survey long-term actual data. 1975: average monthly total cash earnings for all surveyed industries, establishments with 30 or more regular workers. Includes regular and special pay. Establishment-based payroll data, not household income.
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: Values are shown in period money
Assumption: Japanese surveys measure households, not four-person families
The table
2 exhibits¥157,982A
All-household monthly consumption expenditure, 1975observed record
JPY per month, nominal (all two-or-more-person households)
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. 1975: monthly consumption expenditure for all two-or-more-person households, national coverage. This is total household consumption, not a food basket alone.
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
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. 1975: monthly consumption expenditure for all two-or-more-person households, national coverage. This is total household consumption, not a food basket alone.
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
32.0%A
Food share of consumption expenditure, 1975observed record
% of consumption expenditure (all two-or-more-person households)
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
Curator note: From the FIES long-run tables. 1975: food and non-alcoholic beverages as a share of all consumption expenditure for all two-or-more-person households. Down from 38.1% in 1965 as incomes rose and diet diversified.
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
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), 2025 · source
Confidence: A — Official series
Curator note: From the FIES long-run tables. 1975: food and non-alcoholic beverages as a share of all consumption expenditure for all two-or-more-person households. Down from 38.1% in 1965 as incomes rose and diet diversified.
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
The day
1 exhibit172.0 hoursA
Average monthly working hours, establishments with 30+ workers, 1975observed record
hours per month, all surveyed industries, establishments with 30 or more regular workers
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 A
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: A — Official series
Curator note: From the Monthly Labour Survey long-term actual data. 1975: average monthly scheduled working hours for all surveyed industries, establishments with 30 or more regular workers. This is a monthly, not weekly, figure — it cannot be used directly as an hourly-wage affordability anchor without a weeks-per-month conversion.
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: A — Official series
Curator note: From the Monthly Labour Survey long-term actual data. 1975: average monthly scheduled working hours for all surveyed industries, establishments with 30 or more regular workers. This is a monthly, not weekly, figure — it cannot be used directly as an hourly-wage affordability anchor without a weeks-per-month conversion.
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, 1970sdocumented 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. The 1974 and 1979 survey waves 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. The 1974 and 1979 survey waves 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, 1970sdocumented 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: Monthly working hours are available from 1975, but no weekly-hour series or durable-goods prices are in the archive, so an hourly wage and hours-of-work-to-afford comparisons cannot be computed for the 1970s. The monthly wage figure above is the available wage reference.
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: Monthly working hours are available from 1975, but no weekly-hour series or durable-goods prices are in the archive, so an hourly wage and hours-of-work-to-afford comparisons cannot be computed for the 1970s. The monthly wage figure above is the available wage reference.
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.