世論 What Japan Thinks

Last September, DIMSDRIVE Research questioned 13,855 people, 6,102 male, by means of an internet-based survey about what their least favourite souvenir from overseas was.

The whole business of buying おみやげ, omiyage after trips, whether they be to abroad or to domestic locations, is a horrendously expensive process, often involving buying absolute tat for friends and expensive gifts for those you may respect, of feel obliged by society to respect. My wife, for instance, always has to buy her dentist (who is, in my opinion, at least mildly incompetent) some decent wine or the like; for me personally, receiving a gift is a very impersonal act, as I know from my own experience that the person offering the gift just rushed round Duty Free and picked up a handful of the closest boxes of not-too-expensive nor not-too-cheap chocolates with a picture of their holiday resort on the front to distribute as required. Postcards, on the other hand, I love writing and receiving, as the person has to make some effort to write them, but in Japan, even with the traditions of nengajou postcards for New Year, mochuu cards for deaths, chuugen cards in the summer, etc, holiday postcards are almost never sent, and in fact are very difficult to find even at the big tourist spots.

Anyway, back to the rankings.

Q: Of all the overseas souvenirs you have received, what have you been most disappointed by? (Sample size=13,855, free answer)

Souvenir	Votes
Chocolate	1717
Ornament	666
Key holder	656
Macadamia nuts	517
T-shirt	472
Sweets	439
Doll	414
Lipstick	405
Ball-point pen	268
Perfume	202

Q: Of all the overseas souvenirs you have received, what have you been most disappointed by? (Sample size=13,855, by sex, free answer)

Men N=6,102	Votes	Women N=7,753	Votes
Chocolate	824	Chocolate	893
Macadamia nuts	334	Ornament	458
Key holder	264	Lipstick	402
Ornament	208	Key holder	392
T-shirt	168	T-shirt	304
Doll	159	Sweets	287
Sweets	152	Doll	255
Ball-point pen	137	Macadamia nuts	183
Tobacco or cigars	135	Perfume	177
Alcohol	52	Ball-point pen	131

Looking at the breakdown by age, chocolate tops the dislikes of every single group! For the women, lipstick features high in most of the tables; I can understand why they might dislike getting given a lipstick in a shade that doesn’t suit them, but I cannot understand why someone would buy it as a souvenir in the first place; obviously people must, in order for it to spring to mind as a dislike.