世論 What Japan Thinks

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Osaka only?) recently published the results of an opinion poll conducted in conjunction with goo Research to find out what users of Hankyu and Hanshin think about the takeover plans by Hankyu. Over four days at the end of June they got 1,065 members of the goo Research monitor group who were resident in the Kinki area to respond successfully to their internet-based questionnaire. 2% of the sample were under twenty years old (actually just 18 or 19 years old), 20% in their twenties, 41% in their thirties, 25% in their forties, 9% in their fifties, and 3% sixty or older. 58% of the sample was female. Note that sample sizes for the various sub-groups are not described.

For those of you not familiar with the Osaka private railway situation, both Hankyu and Hanshin run between Osaka and Kobe, along with a few other lines, of course. Although price-wise both services are much the same, Hankyu are nominally the first-class service, Hanshin third-class. (The ex-state-owned JR is second-class.) Hankyu has plush green seats with wood-panel effect walls in the carriages, and their line runs at a higher elevation between the two cities; the line, in fact, when passing through some of the posher areas like Shukugawa, Ashiya and Mikage defines the land prices to some extent; the hill side is more pricey than the sea side. Hanshin on the other hand passes through a lot of council housing estates, industrial areas, and the like, and while their trains are kept in tip-top nick, like almost all trains in Japan, of course, they are built to a much more basic design and finish.

The other business area where the contrast between the two companies could not be clearer is in their most famous subsidiaries; the manly and sweaty Hanshin Tigers baseball team versus the trying-to-be-manly-but-not-succeeding and definitely not showing any sweat Takarazuka Revue, the all-female song-and-dance theatre.

Finally, just as a bit of trivia, the name 阪神, hanshin, is just an abbreviation of the kanji for Osaka and Kobe, whilst 阪急, hankyu, is a contraction of Osaka Express.

Q1: What expectations do you have for the effects of the merger in various business areas? (Multiple answer)

Bus, trains and other transport issues	48%
Retailing and real estate	46%
Leisure and sports	22%
Travel and hotels	14%
Can’t expect any effects	14%
Don’t know	11%
Other	0%

When asked about what effects they might see in the two top business areas above, for transport issues, about two-thirds of the sample expected improvements to the networks, fares to come down, and service to improve. For retail and real estate, over three in five of the sample expected co-operation between the department stores and redevelopment of the Umeda area.

When asked in more detail about how the department stores should be handled, over 60% said they should retain their separate names, 21% said they should not merge and continue to compete as separate companies, and 17% said the shops should all use the one name.

Q2: How do you rate the merger of the two companies’ businesses?

	Hanshin users	Hankyu users
Rate it highly	9%	4%
Rate it to some degree	24%	26%
Not opposed to it	33%	29%
Don’t really rate it	17%	20%
Don’t think they should merge	5%	11%
Don’t know	12%	9%

Q3: What do you think regarding the naming of the Tigers baseball team?

	Tigers fan	Not Tigers fan
If they don’t change the name, I don’t care what the business arrangement is	37%	24%
The company should remain a Hanshin subsiduary	56%	33%
I don’t care even if they change the name	3%	13%
Selling on should be an alternative (bad translation!)	1%	7%
Other	1%	1%
Don’t know, or not interested	2%	21%