世論 What Japan Thinks

Having looked at rice in January, in February MyVoice moved on to bread. Over the first five days at the start of February 13,232 members of their online community completed a private internet-based questionnaire.

Demographics

46% of the 13,232 people were male, 2% in their teens, 19% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 13% in their fifties.

I eat bread twice a day; once for breakfast usually with just water and sometimes jam on top; at the moment I have some nice cheap Chivers Ginger and Lime Preserve that we managed to find in an import shop. Lunchtime is also bread from a bakery by work, usually a cheese roll and one or two other breads, often sweet, but sometimes they also have nice rice or even tea rolls.

I am surprised, however, by the quite high frequency of bread eating; I would have thought it might have been lower, but perhaps if we saw the detailed statistics we could learn something by cross-referencing age or sex versus frequency of eating.

Incidentally, Tokyo Times had a recent rather entertaining piece on Japanese bread.

Research results

Q1: About how often do you eat bread? (Sample size=13,232)

Three or more times a day	3.3%
Once or twice a day	25.4%
Five or six times a week	18.3%
Two to four times a week	29.5%
Once a week	15.2%
Less than that	7.5%
Don’t eat bread	0.7%

Q2: When do you eat bread? (Sample size=bread eaters, multiple answer)

Breakfast	82.2%
Snack	41.5%
Lunch	40.2%
Night-time snack	9.5%
Evening meal	6.5%
Other	1.3%
No answer	0.4%

Q3: What kinds of bread do you like? (Sample size=13,232, multiple answer)

Standard loaf bread	65.5%
Croissant	52.2%
Roll	46.8%
French bread	38.5%
Bagel	21.5%
Naan	21.0%
Scone	16.8%
Focaccia	13.2%
Bread roll (coupe)	12.1%
Panini	10.1%
Other	18.8%
None in particular	2.9%
No answer	0.3%

Q4: What sort of sweet breads or preparation methods do you like? (Sample size=bread eaters, multiple answer)

Sandwich	67.8%
Curry roll	48.1%
Hot dog	39.6%
Cream bun	36.8%
Bean-paste roll	36.5%
Melon bread	35.5%
Other savoury bread	32.8%
Croquette roll	27.7%
Yakisoba (fried noodle) roll	27.4%
Steamed bread	23.2%
Fried bread	22.6%
With jam	14.9%
Other	10.1%
None in particular	2.0%
No answer	0.2%

Q5: Where do you mainly buy bread for eating at home? (Sample size=bread eaters, multiple answer)

Supermarket	79.7%
Bakery	63.5%
Convenience store	58.4%
Department store food court, hotel	19.8%
Station, work, or school shop	4.8%
Restaurant, cafe	4.5%
Catalogue or internet mail order	2.3%
Other	3.2%
Don’t buy (make it myself)	0.6%
No answer	0.1%

Q6: Where is the one type of place where you most often buy bread? (Sample size=bread buyers)

Supermarket	50.1%
Bakery	24.2%
Convenience store	20.3%
Department store food court, hotel	2.4%
Station, work, or school shop	0.8%
Catalogue or internet mail order	0.4%
Restaurant, cafe	0.2%
Other	1.1%
No answer	0.5%

Q7: At the place you most often buy bread, what other food or drink do you buy to go along with the bread? (Sample size=bread buyers, multiple answer)

Coffee, coffee-based drink	48.0%
Butter, margarine	41.1%
Egg	37.0%
Milk	34.0%
Cheese	33.6%
Processed meat product	30.9%
Black tea, black tea-based drink	28.1%
Vegetables	27.0%
Jam, peanut butter	26.7%
Vegetable or fruit juice	22.7%
Soup	22.2%
Yoghurt	22.0%
Salad	18.3%
Canned tuna, etc	14.3%
Fruit	12.6%
Cold drink, fizzy drink	9.2%
Mineral water	5.9%
Rice ball	5.7%
Other drink	5.3%
Cup noodle	4.4%
Side dish (fried food)	3.6%
Side dish (meat based)	3.4%
Other western-style sweets	3.3%
Jelly	3.3%
Other side dish	2.1%
Lunch box	1.8%
Other sweets	1.8%
Side dish (fish based)	1.5%
Japanese-style sweets	1.4%
Energy drink	1.1%
Other	1.3%
Nothing in particular	11.7%
No answer	0.2%