short legs

It is said that Japanese have shorter legs than Western comparatively. Two main reasons of it are in Japanese traditional culture. First, Japanese did no sit on the chair in the far past. They sat on the floor called "Tatami" with the way of sitting called "agura" or "seiza". By sitting like these ways from childhood, the growth of their leg's bones were prevented. Second, Japanese mainly are grain and vegetable, and did not eat meat much. Grain and vegetable are more difficult to digest than meat. Therefore, the intestine of Japanese became longer than that of Western. However, western life-style is introduced in Japan recently. We usually sit on the chair and eat meat. There are many young people have long legs now.