世論 What Japan Thinks

DIMSDRIVE Research carried out a survey at the end of October regarding importation of USA beef and beef consumption in general. As a vegetarian myself, I’m naturally ambivalent as to whether people can buy USA beef or not, but as an amateur statistician and UK citizen, I think the whole fuss about BSE and vCJD was overblown, as the figures show. I recognise that at first as it was an new variant of a terrible disease the risk could not be quantified and extreme caution was required, but it seems to have turned out to be not as virulent as first feared. Also, from a Japanese point of view, I suspect that the dangers of toxins from locally-caught seafood may be responsible for more deaths than vCJD in the UK! And don’t get me started on banning blood donations from people who have spent even just one day in the UK!

They interviewed 2,535 men and 3,468 women – 6,003 in total – from their internet monitor group. They performed a similar survey in December 2003, so the trend since then will also be pointed out where significant. The age breakdown was 1.3% in their teens, 18.1% from 20 to 29, 36.3% from 30 to 39, 27.1% from 40 to 49, 12.6% from 50 to 59, and 4.6% 60 or over. Note that I assume “beef” to mean the raw cuts (perhaps precooked too?) as a food ingredient, not restaurant meals. However, given the high figures for male purchases, either many are reporting their wives’ shopping habits or are including prepared food, but since convenience stores figure very low in the statistics, I suspect that the first is true, many men must be reporting their wives’ purchases.

Q: In the last month, about how often have you bought beef? (Sample size=6,003)

	This survey October 2005	Last survey December 2003
Four or more times a week	1.3%	1.6%
Two or three times a week	12.6%	11.6%
Once a week	27.5%	31.5%
Two or three times a month	24.2%	27.9%
Once a month	13.4%	10.3%
Never	21.0%	17.1%

Q: For those who have bought beef, where do you most often purchase it? (Sample size=4,742)

Convenience store	0.4%
Supermarket	83.9%
Department store	3.0%
Butchers	6.8%
Co-operative	4.9%
Others	1.0%

Q: For those who have bought beef, what one thing do you pay most attention to when you make your purchase? (Sample size=4,742)

Price	40.2%
Place of origin	27.9%
Freshness	13.9%
Quality	7.8%
Best-before date	5.7%
Grade	2.4%
Processor (?)	0.9%
Vendor	0.4%
Other	0.8%

Q: What was the country of origin of the beef you currently purchase? (Sample size=4,742, multiple answer)

Japan	62.8%
Australia	52.5%
New Zealand	8.7%
Canada	2.4%
Brazil	0.4%
China	0.3%
Argentina	0.2%
Other	0.1%
Don’t know	10.6

Q: This year it is said that USA beef imports will restart; how do you feel about this? (Sample size=6,003)

Extremely uneasy	28.1%
A little uneasy	38.2%
Not really uneasy	24.0%
Not at all uneasy	6.0%
Don’t know	3.7%

Q: If imports of USA beef resumes, will you buy any? (Sample size=6,003)

Yes	22.5%
No	41.5%
Don’t know	36.0%

Q: For those who won’t buy USA beef, if which points were improved would you buy? (Sample size=2,490, multiple answer)

If USA tested all cattle	62.6%
If it was scientifically proven safe	42.6%
If the particularly dangerous parts were completely removed on importation	31.8%
If only cattle that hadn’t eaten bone meal feed were sold	28.5%
If the origin of beef was displayed at all points of sale	22.9%
If the age of beef was displayed at all points of sale	12.5%
Others	3.9%
Regardless of what was improved I wouldn’t buy	20.1%