世論 What Japan Thinks

As part of their 113th Ranking Research, DIMSDRIVE Research looked at what people’s little luxuries were.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 22nd of March 5,537 members of their online community successfully completed a private internet-based survey. 45.0% of the sample was male.

It’s interesting to note that seven out of the ten directly involve eating, and one could argue that taking a trip to an onsen is as much for the food as the bath. By the way, I don’t know why “eating out” and “eating at a restaurant” are listed separately, although I suspect if they grouped together all the eating options there might not be many other answers left!

Ranking results

Q: What is your little luxury? (Sample size=5,537, free answer)

Rank	Little Luxury	Votes
1	Eating out	541
2	Eating delicious food	486
3	Buying something expensive	264
4	Drinking beer, or premium beer	200
5=	Eating cake, or a more expensive cake	184
5=	Going on a day trip or overnight stay at a hot springs	184
7	Going on domestic travel	175
8	Going out for lunch or a more expensive lunch than usual	175
9	Eating sushi	174
10	Eating at a restaurant	161

Q: What is your little luxury? (Sample size=5,537, by sex, free answer)

Rank	Little Luxury	Male Votes N=2,492	Little Luxury	Female Votes N=3,045
1	Eating out	258	Eating out	283
2	Eating delicious food	221	Eating delicious food	265
3	Drinking (premium) beer	145	Buying something expensive	180
4	Eating sushi	119	Eating (more expensive) cake	153
5	Going to a hot springs	94	Going for (a more expensive) lunch	146
6	Drinking (more expensive) alcohol	89	Eating at a restaurant	91
7	Going on domestic travel	87	Going on domestic travel	91
8	Buying something expensive	84	Going to a hot springs	90
9	Taking it easy without worrying about the clock	75	Getting some beauty treatment	89
10	Eating at a restaurant	70	Leisurely passing the time at a cafe	74

Young men reported meat as a little luxury, either yakiniku grilled beef or a steak, whereas young women found pleasure in Haagen-Dazs or other posh ice cream, as well as in desserts and sweets. For older men, overseas travel had its charms, whilst older women liked splurging on meals at hotels.