Are Fire Horses dangerous in China?

Factual Questions
1

Ok, pretty much everyone knows the ‘Chinese Zodiac’ of 12 animals, each corresponding to a different year (2016, for example, being the Year of the Monkey). Less well known are the additional 5 elements of Wood, Earth, Fire, Metal and Water that combine with the animal cycle to make a larger 60-year cycle.

If you look at a population distribution chart for Japan, you’ll notice that there’s a sharp drop in people born in 1966 (those who’d be 49 at the time of the chart), almost as deep as the population gap caused by WWII, but for only a single year. The reason for the gap is that 1966 was the Year of the Fire Horse, and women born in that year would, according to tradition, be destined to burn through the family fortunes, destroy the family home, and devour (figuratively or literally) their husbands. Whether people actually believed this, or just thought that enough other people believed it that nobody would want to marry a daughter born in that year, the belief was strong enough that enough people held off having kids for a year (or fudged reporting the date of birth) to create a significant demographic dent.

My question is, did this only happen in Japan, or did other countries that use the Chinese zodiac also believe it just as strongly? Looking up information on it, while some say that fire horses can have overwhelming or even destructive personalities, the only sources that mention a ‘curse of the fire horse’ are Japan-focused. And I don’t feel like waiting 10 years to see if it repeats in 2026.

Just looking at demographic tables doesn’t reveal anything very clear, as China and Southeast Asia were going through major upheavals in 1966, while Japan was mainly coping with Beatlemania and the invasion of Coca-Cola. South Korea shows a slight drop at 1966, but it’s not significantly different than any other year-to-year change. Taiwan shows a slight notch, but smaller than Japan’s and smaller than the changes between other years.

(please note: I don’t believe in astrology, I’m just interested in the real-world effects of its belief)

2

I’ve come across one possible explanation, but haven’t seen it corroborated, for why Japan might believe in the ‘curse’ more strongly than other nations: the story of Yaoya Oshichi.

In 1682, the 16-year-old (i.e., born in 1666, a Fire Horse year) Oshichi was caught attempting to start a fire in her neighborhood. According to her testimony, she had fallen in love the previous year with a temple page when her family stayed at the temple to take shelter from a fire. She thought that if there were another fire, she would be able to see him again, and tried to take matters into her own hands.

The official hearing the case apparently took some pity on her, and tried to get her to say she was just 15, as this would make her exempt from the death penalty. But whether she believed she should be justly punished, or she just didn’t pick up on his hint, she insisted that she was 16, and was sentenced to be burned at the stake.

The story became a popular subject in contemporary plays and literature, and the Fire Horse <-> crazy arsonist woman connection may have become more deeply ingrained in the national consciousness as a result.