In 1966, Japan’s number of births suddenly collapsed by nearly 463,000 — a drop of about 25% in a single year. Then, almost immediately, births bounced back.

There was no war, famine, or epidemic.

The reason was a superstition surrounding the Fire Horse year — 丙午 (bǐngwǔ).

According to a belief that became especially powerful in Japan, girls born in a Fire Horse year were destined to be dangerous, strong-willed women who would bring disaster to their husbands. Families delayed pregnancies, changed birth registrations, and in earlier centuries the consequences may have been far darker.

But the strangest part is that the story behind this “ancient” curse appears to have been built largely from literature and theater. The famous woman supposedly responsible for the superstition, Yaoya Oshichi, probably wasn’t even born in a Fire Horse year.

In this video, we trace the Fire Horse belief from the Chinese 60-year calendar system, through Song dynasty China and Edo-period Japan, to the extraordinary demographic collapse of 1966 — and ask why the same thing did not happen again in 2026.

A superstition can seem ancient, inevitable, and anonymous. But sometimes you can actually find the people who helped create it — and measure what their story eventually cost.


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