Akira Hayami


Akira Hayami (Native:速水融）was the emeritus professor of Keio University and the first to introduce historical demography in Japan. Professor Hayami is also famous for coining the concept called "Industrious Revolution",which points out the socio-economic change from capital-intensive to labor-intensive one.

Career

1929: Born in Tokyo, Japan
1948: Entered The Faculty of Economics, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
1950: Graduated from Keio University
1968: Became the professor of Economics at Keio University
1994: Received Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon from Japanese government
1995: Japan Academy Prize
1991: Emeritus Professor of Keio University
2000: Person of Cultural Merit
2001: Elected to be a member of Japan Academy
2008: elected to be a Honorary Member of French Academy of Sciences
2009: Received the Order of Culture from Japanese government
2019: Passed away on December 4th

Industrious Revolution

First, professor Hayami generated household micro database called Basic Data Seat, with religious inquisition registration. Next, based on this database, he observed about 900 villages in Nobi region and exploited the following fact. Number of livestocks in these villages decreased gradually from late 17th century to 19th century, while population and production increased or constant. People's life expectancy was also pointed out to be improved over 10 years. These facts implies that the quantity of human labor input without livestocks would have increased with aggregate output constant, which he named Industrious Revolution. This is Japanese pioneering research to describe population dynamics before Industrial Revolution with statistical methods.