Japanese cohort mortality from cancers of the upper digestive and respiratory tracts.

Cohort mortality between 1875 and 1975 in Japan from cancers of the oesophagus, tongue, and larynx were examined. Death rates were compared with per capita alcohol and tobacco use which are major aetiological agents for these tumours in Westernized countries. Cohort mortality from cancer of the oesophagus remains high for both sexes in a country with historically low alcohol consumption. More consistent with this low drinking pattern are the rates for cancers of the tongue which remain among the lowest in the world. Cancers of the larynx, which have been associated with tobacco and alcohol, declined among successive cohorts, which was in contrast to the sharp cohort increases for lung cancers and tobacco use in Japan during the same period.