世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2]

Following on from my earlier post regarding a survey on smoking by goo Research, I now present a translation of a related opinion poll from DIMSDRIVE Research on smoking manners. In mid-June they interviewed 8,273 people from their internet monitor group. 56.8% of the sample was female, 1.2% in their teens, 17.5% in their twenties, 36.2% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 4.3% aged sixty or over; average age was 42.2 years old for men, 36.6 years old for women. As further demographic information they also published the occupations of the sample; 2.1% were company director level, 37.3% were ordinary full-time employees, 6.3% self-employed, 11.9% in part-time or casual labour, 3.2% worked for local or national government, 2.4% were freelancers, 24.5% housewives, 3.6% students, 1.0% retired, 4.8% unemployed, and 2.9% in others jobs.

One important thing to note when reading these figures is that men tend to be much more likely (almost twice as likely) to smoke, and tend to smoke more, so be wary of quoting these figures directly. If you are interested in that breakdown, either refer to the original survey or ask me and I’ll do a translation of every last statistic.

Q1: Do you smoke tobacco (excluding cigars, pipes, etc)? (Sample size=8,273)

Yes	29.0%
Used to smoke, but don’t now	17.0%
Never smoked	54.0%

Looking at the age breakdown (they seem to have dropped the teenagers somewhere; 20 is the legal age for smoking), for men, only 25.0% of those in their twenties smoked, but just over 40% of those from thirty to fifty-nine smoked, although the number of ex-smokers increased across all the age groups, right up to 37.4% of those in their sixties or older. Only 26.7% of those in their sixties smoked, however. For women, only about 20% of those in their twenties and fifties smoked, going up to just under 24% in the ages in between. At most only 15% were ex-smokers. 34.5% of employed people versus 19.6% of the unemployed (which includes housewives) were smokers, although quitter rates were just about the same for both.

Q2: About how often do you smoke? (Sample size=2,395, current smokers)

Every day	95.0%
Four to six times a week	2.8%
Less than that	2.2%

There was more data in the table, but the pie segments were not labeled, presumably because they were too small.

Q3: About how many cigarettes per day do you smoke? (Sample size=2,395, current smokers)

Less than one	0.3%
One to five	8.8%
Six to ten	16.2%
Eleven to twenty	47.1%
Twenty-one to forty	23.3%
Forty-one to sixty	3.3%
Sixty-one or more	1.0%
Don’t know	0.0%

Excluding those over sixty, for both men and women, the older people tended to smoke more, and men smoked more than women; for instance, only 13.5% of men in their fifties smoked less than a pack a day, whereas 26.4% of women in their fifties did. Working people tended to smoke more, but that is probably because most of the working people are male.

Q4: Where do you smoke? (Sample size=2,395, current smokers, multiple free answer)

Place	Votes
At home	1426
Workplace, office	697
Designated smoking area	401
Car	285
Own room, study, living room	112
Anywhere and everywhere!	106
Outside	106
Restaurant	102
Coffee shop, cafe	94
Whereever I can, whereever there’s an ashtray	92

Q5: Have you ever tried giving up smoking? (Sample size=2,395, current smokers)

Yes	58.3%
No	41.7%

Men were pretty much the same regardless of age, but for women two-thirds of of those in their twenties had tried, dropping down to just half for those in their fifties. (NB: there were only 9 female smokers aged sixty or over, so figures from them are very inaccurate)

Q6: Do you think you will want to give up smoking in the future? (Sample size=2,395, current smokers)

Yes	52.0%
No	25.7%
Don’t know	22.3%

For each age group, slightly more women want to quit, and younger people are also more likely to want to quit.

[part 1] [part 2]