世論 What Japan Thinks

infoPLANT recently released the results of an opinion poll they conducted into what correspondence courses people were currently taking. They used their usual method to gather respondents, namely a publicly available questionnaire through NTT DoCoMo’s iMode menuing system. Over a week at the end of September and the start of October 4,819 self-selecting people completed the survey successfully. 64.3% of the sample was female. Age breakdowns may be seen later.

For those wanting to better themselves in Japanese, applications for this year’s JLPT, Japanese Language Proficiency Test, have already closed, but there’s still time to apply for next February’s 漢字検定, kanji kentei, the thrice per year kanji level test, which is a fun and useful mode of study.

Q1: Within the last year have you studied any subjects by correspondence courses, night school, etc? (Sample size=4,819)

	Yes (to SQs)	No
All	35.9%	64.1%
Male, N=1,720	26.1%	73.9%
Female, N=3,099	41.4%	58.6%

For males by age, teenage boys were the most likely to have studied by a significant margin (although with a sample size of only 43, accuracy may be an issue), followed by men in their twenties. For females by age, older women were more likely to have studied.

Q1SQ1: Within the last year what kind of subjects have you studied by correspondence courses, night school, etc? (Sample size=1,731, multiple answer)

	All N=1,731	Male N=449	Female N=1,282
Sports-related	28.0%	26.1%	28.6%
Business-related	20.1%	29.6%	16.8%
Computer-related	16.7%	24.1%	14.1%
Language-related	13.9%	15.6%	13.3%
Cooking-related	12.0%	4.9%	14.4%
Music-related	10.6%	7.8%	11.6%
Arts-related	8.8%	2.7%	11.0%
Japanese traditional culture-related	8.8%	2.9%	10.8%
Other	14.7%	13.4%	15.2%

There seems to be a rather clear division of the sexes across traditional lines. Looking at the detailed breakdown by age, the teenage and over-fifty groups have to be discounted due to small sample sizes, but for the other ages, about the only interesting data is that learning cooking skills for women is something they do more often when younger; perhaps there are many new brides who were never properly taught by their parents?

I don’t know how one subject that falls into two categories was handled – for instance Kendo might be both sports and traditional culture-related.

Q1SQ2: About how much do you spend per month on correspondence courses, night school, etc? (Sample size=1,731)

	All N=1,731	Male N=449	Female N=1,282
Less than 3,000 yen	19.9%	24.7%	18.3%
Between 3,000 and 5,000 yen	19.8%	18.0%	20.4%
Between 5,000 and 10,000 yen	27.9%	25.8%	28.6%
Between 10,000 and 15,000 yen	16.2%	13.8%	17.1%
Between 15,000 and 20,000 yen	6.0%	5.6%	6.2%
Between 20,000 and 25,000 yen	2.3%	2.0%	2.3%
Between 25,000 and 30,000 yen	2.4%	2.4%	2.4%
Between 30,000 and 40,000 yen	1.7%	1.3%	1.8%
Over 40,000 yen	3.8%	6.2%	2.9%

There were no significant trends by age.

Q1SQ3: From where do you obtain your information on correspondence courses, night school, etc? (Sample size=1,731, multiple answer)

	All N=1,731	Male N=449	Female N=1,282
Advertising leaflet	35.4%	21.8%	40.2%
Word of mouth	35.3%	26.9%	38.2%
Magazines	32.4%	29.6%	33.4%
PC internet site	26.3%	33.6%	23.8%
Direct from the classroom	24.4%	15.4%	27.9%
Newspapers	19.1%	22.9%	17.7%
Mobile phone internet site	11.7%	15.1%	10.5%
Television	11.5%	16.0%	9.9%
Other	14.3%	18.0%	12.9%
PC or mobile internet	33.4%	42.8%	30.1%

Looking at the breakdown by age and sex, older men were more likely to use mobile phone-sourced information whereas conversely amongst women it was the younger ones who used their phones as a source. The older men were also less likely to use a computer to get the information, so the overall figure for internet-based information was much the same for all ages. However, older women were also less likely to use computers, so only 17.4% of women in their forties got learning information off the internet.

Q1SQ4: Regarding education-related topics, which of the following would you like to access from your mobile phone? (Sample size=1,731, multiple answer)

	All N=1,731	Male N=449	Female N=1,282
Lesson or course details	55.5%	46.8%	58.6%
Lesson or course schedules	52.5%	40.3%	56.7%
Classroom, etc, location and access information	52.7%	41.4%	56.7%
Lesson or course online application form	33.6%	29.0%	35.3%
Cost breakdown	57.9%	49.7%	60.8%
Event or presentation information	35.9%	32.5%	37.1%
Enquiries regarding course information	15.4%	12.5%	16.5%
Trial lessons	18.0%	13.6%	19.5%
Articles regarding learning	12.0%	10.0%	12.6%
Other	6.7%	11.4%	5.1%