世論 What Japan Thinks

infoPLANT recently reported on a short but interesting survey they conducted into what people usually carry with them, excluding mobile phones and cash.

Demographics

Over a week between the 10th and 17th of April 2007, infoPLANT collected 7,038 self-selecting respondents to a survey available through the DoCoMo iMode mobile phone menuing system. 35.3% of the sample was male, 6.7% female. For the results persented below, the 173 people, or 2.5% who carried nothing with them were eliminated.

I would love to have seen them ask about mirrors, as it seems that the vast majority of women in trains, and quite a few men, have them stuffed away in their bags for emergency make-up sessions.

Survey results

Q1: Other than a mobile phone or cash, what sort of things do you usually take with you when you go out? (Sample size=6,865, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=2,353	Female N=4,512
Membership card	68.8%	70.2%	68.1%
Credit card	60.6%	62.3%	59.7%
Lip balm, chap stick	50.9%	17.6%	68.3%
Gum, boiled sweets, etc	46.5%	30.8%	54.7%
Coupons	44.5%	31.1%	51.5%
Lipstick, lip gloss	42.4%	0.0%	64.5%
Season ticket, prepaid travel card, etc	40.9%	39.9%	41.4%
Wrist watch	37.0%	48.0%	31.3%
Eye drops	35.7%	25.2%	41.2%
Notebook	34.4%	22.7%	40.4%
Foundation	33.2%	0.0%	50.6%
Facial paper	32.1%	6.0%	45.7%
Over-the-counter medicine	29.2%	15.3%	36.4%
Drink in plastic bottle	23.8%	15.3%	28.2%
Anti-perspirant, deoderant	13.9%	6.5%	17.7%
Mascara	13.5%	0.0%	20.5%
Portable audio player	12.4%	13.4%	11.9%
Book	12.2%	11.1%	12.8%
Digital camera	9.0%	6.7%	10.2%
Toothbrush, toothpaste	7.6%	4.5%	9.2%
Nutritional aid, supplement	6.3%	3.2%	8.0%
Chocolate	4.6%	1.4%	6.3%
Portable games machine	4.4%	4.3%	4.4%
Hair setting product	3.0%	2.6%	3.1%
Magazine	2.4%	4.0%	1.6%
Sweet snack food	1.4%	0.5%	1.8%
Newspaper	1.3%	2.9%	0.5%

I’m not sure if point cards were counted as membership cards or as coupons or not at all. I also wonder if credit cards cover bank cards too.

Based on the above table, they also reported on the total number of items each person carries with them.

Q1A: How many things do you usually take with you when you go out, other than a mobile phone or cash? (Sample size=6,865)

	All	Male N=2,353	Female N=4,512
One item	4.4%	9.3%	1.9%
Two items	7.7%	15.1%	3.9%
Three items	9.9%	17.9%	5.7%
Four items	10.7%	16.6%	7.7%
Five items	9.7%	12.2%	8.4%
Six items	9.5%	9.6%	9.4%
Seven items	8.9%	6.2%	10.4%
Eight items	8.7%	5.1%	10.6%
Nine items	7.9%	3.5%	10.1%
Ten items	6.2%	1.8%	8.5%
Eleven items	4.6%	0.7%	6.1%
Twelve items	4.3%	0.7%	6.1%
Thirteen items	3.0%	0.5%	4.3%
Fourteen items	2.0%	0.2%	2.9%
Fifteen or more items	2.5%	0.3%	3.5%

Q2: Regarding carrying a mobile phone with you, which of the following is closest to your opinion? (Sample size=6,865)

	All	Male N=2,353	Female N=4,512
Feel totally uneasy if I don’t have it with me when I go out	40.3%	36.3%	42.4%
Feel a little uneasy if I don’t have it with me when I go out	40.6%	38.9%	41.6%
Don’t really feel uneasy if I don’t have it with me when I go out	14.0%	17.0%	12.4%
Don’t feel uneasy at all if I don’t have it with me when I go out	2.8%	4.4%	1.9%
Can’t say either way	2.3%	3.4%	1.8%