世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

The Cabinet Office of Japan (Gender Equality Bureau) recently published a survey it carried out on violence between males and females. This opinion poll was conducted by post, with 2,888 respondents, 1,578 or 54.6% female, out of 4,500 people initially randomly selected for participation.

This is a very large survey, so I will publish it in three parts.

Well, I hope you have found this survey interesting in some way. If you want to learn more about the Japanese government’s views on a gender-equal society, please visit the official English home page of the Gender Equlaity Bureau.

From tomorrow it will be back to more mainstream opinion polls!

The following questions were for women only, regarding sexual assault. Note that the Japanese view on what constitutes a sexual assault is probably far narrower than that of the West, so a direct comparison with rape statistics from other countries would be rather difficult, I believe.

Q9: Have you ever been forced into having sexual intercourse? (Sample size=1,578)

Two or more times (to SQ1)	3.2%
One time (to SQ1)	4.0%
Never	90.1%
No answer	2.7%

Looking at the age breakdown, those in their twenties reported almost twice as many single experiences of rape, although the reason for this is not clear.

Q9SQ1: Did you know your assailant? (Sample size=114)

Someone unknown	9.6%
Someone I’d only seen before (to SQ2)	19.3%
Someone I knew well (to SQ2)	66.7%
No answer	4.4%

Q9SQ2: What was your relationship with the assailant? (Sample size=98)

Spouse or former spouse	27.6%
Parent or step-parent	5.1%
Sibling	6.1%
Other relative	7.1%
Someone from work	10.2%
Someone from school (student or teacher, etc)	8.2%
Someone from the neighbourhood	1.0%
Someone from an institution (dormitory, care home, etc)	2.0%
Other	29.6%
No answer	3.1%

Q9SQ3: At what age were you first assaulted? (Sample size=114)

Before entering primary school (under six years old)	5.3%
Whilst in primary school (age six to eleven)	8.8%
Whilst in middle school (age twelve to thirteen)	5.3%
After graduating from middle school but before reaching twenty years old	23.7%
In my twenties	36.8%
In my thirties	13.2%
In my forties	0.9%
Aged fifty or older	3.5%
No answer	2.6%

Q9SQ4: Who did you talk to about your assault? (Sample size=114, multiple answer)

Friends	24.6%
Family or relatives	8.8%
Police	5.3%
School councellor, teacher, etc	2.6%
Health professional	1.8%
Other public body	0.0%
Lawyer, counsellor, etc	0.0%
Other	0.0%
Nobody (to SQ5)	64.0%
No answer	0.9%

Q9SQ5: Why did you not talk to anyone? (Sample size=114, multiple answer)

I couldn’t say anything because of embarrassment	39.7%
I didn’t want to recall the incident	32.9%
If I just endured it, it would be OK	30.1%
Didn’t think it was worth talking about	21.9%
I thought I would look bad too	19.2%
I didn’t know it was OK to speak to anyone	16.4%
I thought it would be ineffective to talk about it	12.3%
If it was known that I’d talked about it, I thought they’d be reprisals or I’d experience even worse violence	12.3%
I thought it was my assailant’s expression of love	9.6%
It would be unseemly	6.8%
If other people knew, I thought I wouldn’t be able to relate to people at work, school, etc	6.8%
My assailant threatened me if I talked to someone	5.5%
I thought the words or actions of the person I talked to would be an unpleasant experience	2.7%
I didn’t want to get anyone else involved	1.4%
Other	5.5%
No answer	1.4%

Q10: What is necessary to prevent violence between men and women? (Multiple answer)

	Female N=1,578	Male N=1,310
Education at home regarding preventing violence by guardians towards children	69.6%	70.5%
Education at school or university for students regarding preventing violence	59.9%	59.2%
Strengthen penal regulations against assailants	59.4%	57.9%
Crack down on material such as magazines or software that promote violence	56.4%	50.5%
Education to prevent the worse offenders repeating their crime	53.9%	44.6%
Proactive enlightenment publicity and activities in the media	44.5%	42.0%
Regional workshops and other events on the theme of preventing violence	23.9%	27.4%
Other	3.5%	5.7%
Nothing in particular	3.2%	3.4%
No answer	3.7%	3.7%

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

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