世論 What Japan Thinks

Spring is sprung and the sap is rising, and young thoughts turn to love, so let’s enjoy a recent survey from goo Research, conducted between the 27th and 29th of March 2007 amongst 555 single youths, most in their twenties, from all over Japan, on the matters of love and laughter. Note that the male-female split is not reported.

It does seem a rather disjoint pair of topics, but the answers are rather interesting. I do find it amusing that half as many women are in love than men, which perhaps prompts the question “what exactly does ‘love’ mean to you?” Alternatively, perhaps it is the unwillingness of men to commit themselves to a serious relationship, or just that women have stronger passions than men.

Note that the word used in the survey for being in love is 恋愛, ren’ai.

Let’s get a little personal, ack, no, let’s not get too personal, as I’ll sound far too soppy! I’ll just say it was common values that was the main spark for me, as well as that special magic, and it didn’t take too long (a month and a half?) for me to realise that we would marry. Oh, and we met through an “Other” method.

Survey results

Q1: Are you currently in love? (Sample size=555)

	All	Male	Female
Yes (to SQs)	37%	30%	45%
No	49%	58%	40%
Don’t know	14%	13%	15%

Q1SQ1: Are you thinking about marrying your lover? (Sample size=206)

	All	Teens	Twenties	Thirties
Thinking seriously	30%	10%	43%	30%
Thinking a little	28%	28%	34%	20%
Not really thinking about it	16%	29%	7%	15%
Not thinking about it at all	18%	26%	11%	22%
Don’t know	8%	7%	5%	13%

Q1SQ2: How did you meet your lover? (Sample size=206)

Knew from school, university	28%
Introduced by friend	21%
Work in the same office	14%
Met through internet	11%
Met through work	10%
Met at party, re-union, etc	8%
Met on the street	2%
Met through night classes, etc	2%
Met through marriage introduction agency	1%
Other	4%

Q2: On which of the following aspects do you base your choice of partner? (Sample size=555, up to three answers)

Chararacter	77%
Values	56%
Love, affection	40%
Looks (face, body)	33%
Common hobbies	16%
Way of talking	15%
Knowledge or upbringing	14%
Age	10%
Health	5%
Income	5%
Height	3%
Elegance	3%
Job	2%
School, university history	1%
Other	3%
Don’t know	1%

Note that the above adds up to 284%, so fortunately most people have at least three factors.

Q3: If you were going out with someone of the opposite sex, but someone new appeared on the scene, what would you do? (Sample size=555)

	All	Male	Female
Continue going out with current partner	29%	36%	22%
Break up with current partner	23%	15%	30%
Go out with both of them	11%	13%	9%
Don’t know	38%	37%	39%

Wow! I didn’t expect men to be more loyal or less fickle than women for this question!

Q4: When on a date, who should pick up the bill for food, etc? (Sample size=555)

	All	Male	Female
Each pay own share	30%	30%	31%
Men should pay larger share	41%	38%	44%
Women should pay larger share	0%	0%	0%
Men should pay all	11%	11%	11%
Women should pay all	1%	1%	0%
Should take turn about paying bills	11%	12%	10%
Don’t know	5%	7%	4%

Now, a change of pace as we move on to comedy.

Q5: Do you like making people laugh by telling jokes, etc? (Sample size=555)

	All	Teens	Twenties	Thirties
Like it a lot	22%	24%	24%	19%
Like it a little	60%	54%	63%	62%
Don’t like it much	12%	12%	11%	13%
Don’t like it at all	2%	3%	1%	3%
Don’t know	4%	7%	2%	4%

Q6: About how many comedy shows per week do you watch? (Sample size=555)

Five or more	8%
Three or four	24%
Two	24%
One	22%
Hardly ever watch	16%
Never watch	6%

Q7: Why do you watch comedy programs? (Sample size=555)

Just like comedy	65%
Just to pass the time	43%
Laughter relieves stress	42%
Because my favourite comedians appear in them	24%
For stimulation	16%
To give me something to talk about at school or work	15%
For the skillful talk	12%
Other	2%

The final question was on people’s favourite comedian or double-act, but only the top four answers were highlighted. Number one was Downtown, the manzai pair Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada, with 28%. Next was the man old enough to be all the respondent’s father, Akashiya Sanma, at 25%, then Ninety-Nine, Takashi Okamura and Hiroyuki Yabe, at 21%, then Jicho-Kacho, Jun’ichi Koumoto and Satoshi Inoue, at 17%.