世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

The Norinchukin Bank recently released the results of a survey they commissioned into fathers, their eating habits, and what they are teaching their children about food.

Demographics

The survey was conducted between the 22nd of November and 7th of December in 2006, amongst fathers living in and around the Tokyo area, with 400 men aged between 30 and 49 were interviewed. Although it is not clearly stated, I believe all the men surveyed were full-time employment.

The survey results were on the whole presented not in tabular form, but as highlights of the answers given to the posed questions. I will retain the same style in this write-up.

Part two looked at how fathers interacted with their families regarding mealtimes. Sadly there is no data on why over two in five men make little or no effort to eat at home.

SECTION 2: Eating with family situation and awareness

Q1: Do you make an effort to eat with your family? (Sample size=400)

13.8% put a lot of effort into eating as a family unit, and 45.8% put some effort into it, versus 40.5% who expend little or no effort to sit down with their families at mealtimes. Those in their thirties put more effort into it than their older counterparts, 65.0% versus 54.0% putting some or a lot of effort into it. There was also a noticeable extra amount of effort put into eating together with children up to middle school age.

Asked what sort of efforts they made, top was eating together at weekends, with 68.1% doing so versus 59.2% trying if possible to eat together at (weekday?) evening meals. 31.1% tried to eat breakfast together and 18.9% taking the family out to eat.

Cross-referencing amount of effort versus frequency of eating at home from the previous section, we get the following table:

	Frequency eating breakfast at home	Frequency eating evening meal at home
No effort	4.1 times per week	5.1 times per week
Some effort	4.9 times per week	5.5 times per week
A lot of effort	5.3 times per week	6.1 times per week

All that effort gives fathers about one extra meal at home per week, although note that this is eating at home, rather than eating with family.

Conversely, cross-referencing efforts versus going off to the pub with workmates, those who make a lot of effort go off drinking on average 0.8 times a week, those who make some effort go off 1.4 times a week, whilst those making little or no effort at all end up in the pub 1.7 times a week.

Finally, cross-referencing having a drink with one’s evening meal versus effort, 45.5% who make a lot of effort always drink, 38.3% who make some effort always drink, but only 29.6% who make little or no effort always drink with evening meals at home. This might suggest fathers getting an alcohol-laced reward for their effort, or it might suggest that fathers who come home later and eat by themselves don’t usually drink for other reasons.

Q2: How often do you sit down as a family to eat? (Sample size=400)

Seven or more times a week	39.5%
Three to six times a week	34.0%
Once or twice a week	21.5%
One, two or three times a month	4.3%
Less than once a month	0.7%

As may be guessed from earlier results, those in their thirties ate as a family more often than those in their forties, with 47.0% versus 32.0% managing to eat together once a day on average.

Q3: What do you do when you sit down as a family to eat? (Sample size=400)

The top answer was talking to the family, with 92.5% doing so, followed by 63.0% watching television. The rest of the results were in single figures; 8.5% reading the newspaper, 6.8% eating silently (well, at least without talking), 1.5% talking or sending email on their mobile phone, and 1.3% reading a magazine or a book. The younger group talked with their family more, the older group read the newspaper more.

When asked about the contents of the family chit-chat, the top was 73.3% talking about the children’s friends and what they were getting up to with them. Next, 67.0% talked about family-related stuff, then 45.5% about news, 44.3% gossiped about television programs or celebrities, 33.3% on sports, 27.0% about their children’s studies or exams, and 25.8% about work-related issues.

Q4: Do you participate in eating habit-related activities? (Sample size=400)

The top answer was going shopping, with 53.5% saying they did. Next, 34.5% carried the dishes to the kitchen after a meal, although only 25.5% went as far as washing them. 29.8% claimed to do cooking, 22.5% were in charge of dishing up the food, and 21.5% set the table or carried the food to the table. The more children one had, the more likely one went shopping, and a similar trend was noted with dish washing.

As for the frequency of the above activities, first shopping: the most common frequency was once per week, with 43.0% of the 53.5% above going that often. Once or twice a month was second at 23.4%, then twice or thrice a week at 22.0%, giving an overall average shopping frequency of 4.9 times a month. Remember that Japanese kitchens are smaller overall, so I would guess that Japanese need to shop more frequently than their Western counterparts, although I do not have any figures for that.

Next, for cooking meals: 31.9% of the 29.8% above saide they did it once a week, followed by 27.7% cooking once or twice a month, 22.7% cooking less than once a month, and 10.1% twice or thrice a week, giving an average of 4.4 times a month, excluding those who do not cook at all, of course.

Other things of note that fathers did were 3.8% growing fruit and veg, 1.8% going fishing, and 1.5% cultivating rice.

Looking instead at men who do nothing, 28.8% said they were in that category; 24.0% of those in their thirties, and just over a third (33.5%) of those in their forties didn’t lift a hand to help at meal times.

Q5: What do you yourself most often cook at home? (Sample size=119, free answer)

Top was chahan (25 votes), next was pasta (17 votes), then curry (16 votes), then tied on 14 votes were egg-based recipes, yakisoba/yakiudon (fried noodles), ramen/udon/soba, and hamburger/meat cooking.

Q6: Have you ever cooked a meal or made a lunch box for your children? (Sample size=400)

Yes	28.0%
No	72.0%

Q7: How satisfied are you with your day-to-day eating habits? (Sample size=400)

Scoring out of 100 points, the top answer was 80-89 points, with 27.3% saying so. Next was 21.8% with 70-79 points, 20.5% with 90-99, 12.0% awarded themselves a full score of 100 points. 60-69 points were given by 9.3%, and 50-59 points were given by 6.3%. Overall the average score was 77.8 points.

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]