世論 What Japan Thinks

Since Valentine’s Day is looming large on the horizon, let’s take a look at a survey of the MyVoice community about how their Valentine’s day was last year. They received 15,003 replies to their internet questionnaire, with 57% or 8,571 of the respondents female. Almost 40% of the sample size was in their thirties, and in addition 5% were teenagers, 24% in their twenties, 22% in their forties, and 11% aged fifty and over.

First, a quick background on St Valentine’s Day in Japan; on this day, the women buy men presents only – the men’s turn comes around on White Day, March 14th (and I’ll be presenting a translation of a similar survey on that topic presently) – but they do not buy for their love only, they should also buy for their bosses, colleagues, and others, this being another example of the formalised tipping that goes on in Japan.

Q1: On Valentine’s Day this year, to how many people did you send (or receive for males) chocolates or other presents? (Sample size=15,003)

	All	Female N=8,571	Male N=6,432
No-one	25%	25%	26%
One person	25%	25%	24%
Two or three people	32%	29%	37%
Four or five people	10%	10%	10%
Six to ten people	4%	6%	2%
11 to 20 people	2%	3%	0.4%
21 or over people	1%	1%	0%

Q2: To whom did you send presents? (Sample size around 6,428 (present sending women only), multiple answer)

Lover or spouse	76%
Other family member	42%
Work or school-related person	22%
Male friend	11%
Female friend	7%
Someone I fancy other than lover or spouse	4%
Myself	4%
Other	7%
No answer	0.4%

Note that “someone I fancy other than lover or spouse” does not imply that the woman selecting this already has a husband or lover; nor, of course, does it exclude this situation!

Q3: In total, about how much did you send on Valentine’s Day items? (Sample size around 6,428 (present sending women only))

Nothing at all	2%
Up to 500 yen	11%
500 to 1000 yen	22%
1000 to 2000 yen	23%
2000 to 3000 yen	15%
3000 to 5000 yen	14%
5000 to 10000 yen	9%
Over 10000 yen	3%
No answer	1%

Q4: Select from the following the terms that describe your feelings towards Valentine’s Day. (Sample size=15,003, multiple answer)

Not needed	29%
Needed	26%
Fun	24%
Troublesome	19%
No interest	17%
Happy	16%
Excited!	15%
Important	9%
Interested	7%
A problem	4%
Boring	4%
Depressing	2%
Unpleasant	2%
Other	3%
No answer	1%

Q5: For women: If you send chocolates, etc on Valentine’s Day, do you expect to get something in return on White Day? For men: If you receive a present, do you return the favour on White Day? (Sample size=15,003)

	Expect or return	Don’t expect or return	No answer
All	54%	42%	4%
Male	69%	27%	3%
Female	43%	53%	4%