Table 1. Crude and age-standardized incidence rates of esophageal cancer in Japanese and Chinese populations.

Area	Period	Men					Women
		Crude	ASR	MV (%)	DCO (%)	MI (%)	Crude	ASR	MV (%)	DCO (%)	MI (%)
Japan
Aichi Prefecture	1998–2002	9.2	6.4	82.1	15.5	69.0	1.4	0.8	64.9	27.0	70.3
Fukui Prefecture	1998–2002	12.2	6.0	89.4	3.7	56.9	2.9	1.1	82.0	9.8	55.7
Hiroshima	1996–2000	18.4	12.1	95.4	1.4	56.9	3.7	2.0	92.5	1.9	53.8
Miyagi Prefecture	1998–2002	28.6	15.4	85.2	8.4	57.7	5.4	2.2	79.5	12.8	56.6
Nagasaki	1998–2002	21.7	10.7	90.3	4.8	66.0	3.1	1.2	85.4	7.3	68.3
Osaka Prefecture	1998–2002	19.0	10.8	76.3	12.0	76.7	3.7	1.7	71.1	16.8	72.9
Saga	1993–1997	14.7	8.2	85.0	9.0	51.0	2.1	0.9	84.0	11.0	56.0
Yamagata Prefecture	1998–2002	29.7	13.0	87.1	8.4	68.5	4.7	1.6	76.0	14.0	62.7
China
Beijing	1993–1997	14.6	10.2	74.0	2.0	71.0	6.4	4.0	67.0	3.0	70.0
Changlea	1993–1997	21.0	30.1	55.0	—	87.0	8.2	8.9	47.0	—	87.0
Cixiana	1993–1997	133.9	183.8	75.0	3.0	72.0	105.0	123.1	70.0	6.0	72.0
Guangzhou	2000–2002	9.2	9.3	71.0	0.2	86.0	2.3	1.8	70.8	0.0	75.8
Qidong County	1993–1997	13.7	13.2	57.0	0.0	92.0	5.6	3.9	54.0	0.0	92.0
Shanghai	1998–2002	14.4	9.2	63.4	0.6	70.4	6.2	3.0	55.8	0.8	72.0
Zhongshan	1998–2002	16.0	16.5	95.5	0.0	—	1.8	1.9	95.0	0.0	—

Source: Cancer Incidence in Five Continents Vol. VIII and Vol. IX, IARC Scientific Publications No. 155 and No. 160.

ASR: age-standardized rate, per 100 000 population; MV: morphologic verification of diagnosis; DCO: death certificate only; MI: ratio of mortality to incidence registered.

^aThese 2 areas were defined as “high-incidence areas” (ASR >30 per 100 000 population).