世論 What Japan Thinks

Recently goo Research carried out research into awareness of product and service safety issues. They interviewed 1,064 consumers by means of a web-based questionnaire, but details of the demographics of this sample were not reported.

Product and service safety has recently become a big issue in Japan, but quite frankly blown out of all proportion by the media. First of all there was the truely problematic Aneha scandal of blocks of flats and hotels not being built according to the building codes, thus liable to collapse even in moderately strong earthquakes. Next up was US beef, blown up out of all proportion, especially considering that not many people in Japan worry about (or even know about) the human growth hormones and antibiotics that are far more likely to aversely affect your health compared to BSE or vCGD, let alone the heavy metals in Japanese fish or the second-hand smoke in the average Japanese restaurant. Later was Schindler’s Lifts, which, as the linked story suggests, the brouhaha was caused as much by the company’s failure to appear sorry enough as by the death from the hardware failure itself. Note that at the end of August a man died after falling into an empty lift shaft, but this got very little press coverage and no mention of the make of the faulty equipment, at least in the linked story, so I would put good money on it not being one of Schindler’s.

I have also omitted mention of bits falling off planes or trains crashing or poison fan heaters or…

Oh, and the title of this story, “Safety Japan” comes from a common Japanese English mistake of using “safety” instead of “safe”, as in the other stereotypical “I am safety driver” expression.

Q1: Comparing with society overall 20 years ago, do you think product and service safety is higher? (Sample size=1,064)

Higher	20.5%
A little higher	51.1%
A little lower	15.0%
Lower	5.3%
Don’t know	8.1%

When asked when they started becoming aware of product and service safety issues, the most common answer was between 5 to 9 years ago at 28.6%; next was between 3 to 4 years ago at 19.5%. However, only 5.5% said they had become aware of safety issues within the last two years. 18.4% said they had no particular interest in safety issues, and as one might expect, the younger they were the more likely they were to be indifferent; just over a quarter (25.2%) of all in their twenties versus an eighth (12.7%) of those in their sixties.

Q2: When selecting, purchasing or using a product or service, which of the following is most important? (Sample size=1,064)

Quality	33.4%
Features	25.0%
Price	24.0%
Safety	11.8%
Design	4.3%
Environment factors	0.8%
Other	0.8%

Q3: In the overall manufacture or provision cost for a product or service, about what percentage is an appropriate amount for the provider or manufacturer to spend for safety measures? (Sample size=1,064)

About 50%	21.7%
About 40%	8.2%
About 30%	30.2%
About 20%	21.2%
About 10%	16.3%
5% or less	2.5%

Q4: In order for the supplier or manufacturer to raise safety of their products or service, what do you think is most needed? (Sample size=1,064)

Strengthen authority of third-party checks	36.8%
Reform of awareness of cost	22.3%
Improved techniques	19.4%
Passing down of techniques	6.7%
Communication with the customer or local area	9.6%
Other	5.3%

An additional question was asked to see if people had suffered injury of damages from a product or service. 8.7% reported they had, with causes being foodstuffs, paraffin gas heaters, televisions, computers, hair curlers and electric razors, with them bursting into flames or overheating being problems for many. In addition seven people from the 93 who has suffered injury injured their fingers on metal objects, and three had bicycle-related accidents.

Q5: Select all the sectors which you think are a threat to your safety. (Sampke size=1,064, multiple answer)

Waste management	67.1%
Foodstuffs	66.3%
Lifts (elevators) and escalators	59.4%
Nuclear and other power generation	51.1%
Airlines	48.6%
Homes	48.0%
Cars	42.2%
Railways	41.4%
Chemical refining	32.6%
Home electrical goods	24.4%
Power transmission and telephones	12.8%
Other	2.3%
Don’t think any sectors are a threat to safety	1.4%