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Satomi Kurosu's Picture
Address:
Reitaku University
2-1-1 Hikarigaoka
Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8686 Japan
Phone:
+81-4-7173-3477
Fax:
+81-4-7173-3992

Satomi Kurosu

Satomi Kurosu is Professor of Sociology, Vice President, Director of the International Exchange Center, and Director of the Center for Family and Population Research at Reitaku University. Her work explores historical demography and family sociology, with a particular focus on households, families, and life courses in early modern Japan. She has played a leading role in the cross-national comparative Eurasian Project and serves on the Board of Directors of the Hiroike Institute of Education. She is President of the Population Association of Japan for the 2026–2028 term.

Education
  • Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Washington, USA (1990)
Research Interests
  • Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage
  • Adoption and Reproduction
  • Historical Demography of Early-Modern Japan
Projects

PFHP Icon Population and Family History Project at Reitaku
Population and Family History Project (PFHP) is dedicated to archive, construct and analyze population records from pre-census Japan.

Eurasia Project Icon Eurasia Project on Population and Family History
The EAP project is an approach to historical demography that is intended to provide a substantially more detailed understanding of the historical trajectory of demography in different parts of the Eurasian land mass - population size, nuptiality, fertility, mortality, etc.

Research Grants and Awards (2015+)
  • Grants in Aid for Scientific Research (B), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Principal Investigator, "Social Inequality and Life Course in Early Modern Japan: Migration, Health, and Reproduction," April 2024 - March 2027.
  • Reitaku University Presidential Award 2015 for Similarity in Difference: Marriage in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900. MIT Press
  • MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan) Supported Program for the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities, "Longitudinal study of population, economy and family: Construction of a multi-generational panel database" Principal Investigator, 2015-2019.
  • Grants in Aid for Scientific Research (B), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Principal Investigator, "Comparative study of population and family in East Asia: Analytical approach with historical demography data" Principal Investigator, April 2015- March 2019.
Recent Selected Publications
  1. Kurosu, Satomi and Hao Dong. 2025. "Economic Stress and Migration in Early Modern Japan: Rural-Urban Comparative Evidence from Population Registers." Explorations in Economic History 97: 101667. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2025.101667.
  2. Ichino, Mika, Satomi Kurosu, and Kooiti Masuda. 2025. "Solar Radiation, Rice Prices, and Migration in Northeastern Japan during the 18th and 19th Centuries." Geografie 130: 369-388. https://doi.org/10.37040/geografie.2025.013.
  3. Kurosu, Satomi, Miyuki Takahashi, and Hao Dong. 2021. "Thank You, Akira Hayami! The Xavier Database of Historical Japan." Historical Life Course Studies 11: 112-131. https://doi.org/10.51964/hlcs11113.
  4. Dong, Hao, and Satomi Kurosu. 2021. "Gendered Survival Differentials of Adopted Children in Northeast Japan, 1716-1870." The History of the Family 26(4): 583-601. https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2021.1961095.
  5. Lundh, Christer, Satomi Kurosu, et al. 2014 Similarity in Difference: Marriage in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900. The MIT Press.
  6. Dong Hao, Cameron Campbell, Satomi Kurosu, Wenshan Yang, and James Z. Lee 2015 "New Sources for Comparative Social Science: Historical Population Panel Data from East Asia" Demography 52(3): 1061-1088.
  7. Kurosu, Satomi 2013 "Adoption and Family Reproduction in Early Modern Japan" The Economic Review 64(1): 1-12.
  8. Kurosu, Satomi (ed.) 2012 Rekishi-Jinko-gaku kara mita Kekkon Rikon Saikon (Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage in Historical Demography Perspective) Reitaku University Press. (In Japanese)
  9. Kurosu, Satomi 2011 "Divorce in Early Modern Rural Japan: Household and Individual Life Course in Northeastern Villages, 1716-1870" Journal of Family History April 2011 (36): 118-141.
  10. Kurosu, Satomi, Tommy Bengtsson, and Cameron Campbell (eds) 2010 Demographic Responses to Economic and Environmental Crises. Reitaku University.
  11. Tsuya, Noriko O. and Satomi Kurosu 2010 "Family, Household, and Reproduction in Two Northeastern Japanese Villages, 1716-1870" pp.67-95 in Prudence and Pressure: Reproduction and Human Agency in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900. The MIT Press.
  12. Hanaki, Nobuyuki and Satomi Kurosu 2010 "Marriage Relationships among Households in the mid 19th Century Tama, Japan: Socioeconomic Homogamy, Geographical Endogamy and Kinship Network" The History of the Family 15: 333-347.
  13. Kurosu, Satomi 2010 "Reproduction in East Asian Historical Demography: Introduction" The History of the Family 64(1), 1-12.
  14. Kurosu, Satomi 2007 "Remarriage Risks in Comparative Perspective: Introduction." Continuity and Change 22(3): 367-372.
  15. Kurosu, Satomi 2007 "Remarriage in a Stem Family System in Early Modern Japan." Continuity and Change 22(3): 429-458.