世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2]

The Cabinet Office of Japan conducted a survey back in November and December of 2004 to discover what people thought about gender roles in society. Although slightly old, this survey, performed by proper statistical means, should have a high degree of accuracy. They chose 5,000 people for face-to-face interviews, with 3,502 of them consenting to be surveyed.

This is a rather sizeable survey, so the results will be published over two days.

It would be instructive to compare and contrast the results here with a previous report I translated on how women perceive their own roles in the workplace.

Notice that in Q3 the most important thing Japanese think should be does is to change society’s perception, rather than perhaps any legal measures. This option, I suppose, does not force men to change, and thinking back to the previous equal opportunity survey, women are perhaps acknowledging that the equal opportunities laws have not changed anything, so it must be attitudes that should be changed in order for them to see any significant benefit.

First, the basic demographics of the survey.

Sex

Male	46.1%
Female	53.9%

Age

20 to 24 years old	4.7%
25 to 29 years old	5.5%
30 to 34 years old	7.9%
35 to 39 years old	8.2%
40 to 44 years old	7.3%
45 to 49 years old	7.9%
50 to 54 years old	10.6%
55 to 59 years old	11.2%
60 to 64 years old	11.3%
65 to 69 years old	10.4%
70 years old or over	15.0%

Marital status

Married	75.8%
Not married by living with partner	0.7%
Divorced	3.3%
Widowed	6.7%
Single	13.5%

Domestic situation

Living alone	7.7%
Living with partner only (one generation)	23.7%
Living with parents or children (two generations)	49.2%
Living with grandparents or grandchildren (three generations)	17.9%
Other	1.5%

Now, to the questions themselves.

Q1: In the following areas, do you think that men and women have equal status? (Sample size=3,502, multiple answer)

	Men have extremely favourable treatment	Men have favourable treatment to some extent	There is equality	Women have favourable treatment to some extent	Women have extremely favourable treatment	Don’t know
Home life	10.8%	38.5%	39.9%	6.7%	1.4%	2.6%
Workplace	16.7%	42.7%	25.0%	3.7%	0.5%	11.3%
School education	2.3%	11.4%	66.8%	3.1%	0.4%	16.0%
Politics	30.9%	41.0%	19.7%	1.1%	0.2%	7.1%
In law and other institutions	11.7%	34.4%	39.3%	4.3%	0.8%	9.5%
Everyday perception, customs, etc	24.1%	50.6%	17.2%	2.9%	0.3%	4.8%

Regarding the last question, note that “ladies first” is an alien concept; in fact I see men not even give a door an extra push to help let their partner through more often than I see any attempt to hold it open.

Looking at the breakdown by sex for each of the above, women do feel men have priority more than men feel they do themselves. Up to 50% more women than men feel that men have extremely favourable treatment, but only 10% or 20% more women feel some favourable treatment. Interestingly enough, a similar perception of favourable treatment for women is recorded; men seem to see nothing amiss more than women.

Q2; So, looking at society as a whole, do you think men and women have equal status? (Sample size=3,502)

	All	Female N=1,886	Male N=1,616
Men have extremely favourable treatment	12.7%	16.0%	8.9%
Men have favourable treatment to some extent	61.2%	63.8%	58.2%
There is equality	20.1%	14.9%	26.1%
Women have favourable treatment to some extent	3.6%	2.8%	4.6%
Women have extremely favourable treatment	0.2%	0.1%	0.4%
Don’t know	2.2%	2.5%	1.9%

Q3: In order to realise a society more equal for men and women across all fields, which of the following do you think is the more important? (Sample size=3,502)

Reform various prejudices, entrenched perceptions, and customs surrounding women	28.6%
Women apply their economic strength, acquire knowledge and techniques, etc, and positively plan to enhance their power	22.9%
Plan to establish systems to fully support women seeking work and participation in society	14.6%
Carry out a review of the law and other institutions, and reform things connected with female discrimination	13.2%
Adopt a fixed percentage for women in key posts in industry and politics, etc	10.7%
Other	1.5%
Don’t know	8.5%

The answers to this were very similar for both the sexes. Significant differences were that almost 50% more women prefered setting fixed target percentages, whilst about a third more men prefered the rather vague review of institutions.

Q4: In order for women to advance in areas that they are not really advancing in, what steps do you think would be good to take? (Sample size=3,502, multiple answer)

Private enterprises should automonously set targets for female employees, their promotion, education, etc., and take steps to stimulate the advancement of female workers	34.9%
National or local government should automonously set targets for female employees, their promotion, education, etc., and take steps to stimulate the advancement of female workers	29.0%
National or local government should have quotas for female employees or managers, etc.	23.6%
Private enterprises should have quotas for female employees or managers, etc.	21.0%
National or local government should give aid or tax breaks to companies with proactive policies towards women	20.8%
Political parties should have a fixed percentage of female candidates at elections	20.4%
When tendering for public works, national and local government should give favourable treatment to companies with proactive policies towards women	19.2%
National and local government committees should give women priority when appointing members	16.0%
In science and technology and other university disciplines where there are few women, in order to encourage them to attend, support cultivation and offering of information	13.6%
Support female entrepreneurs financially, etc.	12.5%
Other	2.7%
Don’t know	14.9%

Q5: How do you think regarding working women? (Sample size=3,502)

	All	Female N=1,886	Male N=1,626
They shouldn’t work at all	2.7%	1.7%	3.8%
They should work up until they marry	6.7%	5.4%	8.3%
They should work up until they have children	10.2%	9.1%	11.5%
Even when they have children, they should continue to work	40.4%	41.9%	38.6%
They should quit once they have children, then return to work once they are grown up	34.9%	37.0%	32.4%
Other	2.3%	2.0%	2.7%
Don’t know	2.8%	2.9%	2.7%

It is interesting that both male and female have rather similar views on this matter.

[part 1] [part 2]