世論 What Japan Thinks

As I value my eardrums and my lungs, I’ve never ventured into the smoke-filled clamour of a pachinko parlour, although I did once enter a Kyotei boat racing stadium due to getting off the train to Miyajima in Hiroshima one stop early! Recently, MyVoice looked in detail at this, gambling in Japan.

Demographics

Over the first five days of July 2007 13,236 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was male, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 13% aged fifty or older.

With everyone’s favourite politician, the governer of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, talking about bringing casinos to Japan it is interesting to see in Q6 that people support this by about two to one, although half the population is still to decide. Personally, if done right I would bascially support the moves, but I fear the chances of it being anything other than a haven for dodgy Yakuza operations are rather slim.

Note that as pachinko and gambling in general seems to have a lower class image but the MyVoice community seems to have a slight bias towards the higher end of the class scale, I would suspect that the figures are if anything an underestimation. Earlier this year I reported on another survey on gambling, this time by Central Research Services.

Research results

Q1: Which of the following forms of legal gambling do you regularly spend money on? (Sample size=13,236, multiple answer)

Jumbo or other regular lotteries	30.6%
Mini lotto, Lotto 6	15.1%
Centralised horse racing	11.4%
Scratch cards	9.1%
Pachinko	8.9%
toto (Soccer pools)	8.5%
Pachislot (fruit machines)	6.4%
Numbers	6.1%
Regional horse racing	2.2%
Kyotei (Boat racing)	1.4%
Keirin (Bicycle racing)	0.8%
Car racing	0.4%
None of them	46.0%
No answer	0.2%

Q2: Which of the following forms of legal gambling is your favourite? (Sample size=13,236)

Jumbo or other regular lotteries	20.2%
Mini lotto, Lotto 6	9.2%
Centralised horse racing	6.7%
Pachinko	4.0%
Scratch cards	3.7%
toto (Soccer pools)	3.4%
Pachislot (fruit machines)	3.2%
Numbers	1.8%
Kyotei (Boat racing)	0.4%
Regional horse racing	0.2%
Keirin (Bicycle racing)	0.2%
Car racing	0.1%
None of them	46.8%

Q3: About how much per month do you spend (excluding winnings, just stake money) on your favourite form of legal gambling? (Sample size=those who gamble)

Up to 1,000 yen	25.9%
1,000 to 5,000 yen	41.8%
5,000 to 10,000 yen	13.0%
10,000 to 30,000 yen	10.4%
30,000 to 50,000 yen	4.5%
50,000 to 100,000 yen	2.3%
100,000 to 200,000 yen	0.6%
200,000 to 300,000 yen	0.3%
300,000 yen or more	0.5%
No answer	0.7%

Q4: About how often do you spend money on your favourite form of legal gambling? (Sample size=those who gamble)

Once a week or more	22.6%
Once every two weeks	13.3%
Once a month	17.0%
Once every three months	22.3%
Once every six months	14.9%
Once a year	5.9%
Less than that	2.7%
No answer	1.2%

Q5: Why don’t you gamble? (Sample size=those who don’t gamble, multiple answer)

Not interested	45.4%
Won’t win	38.5%
Got a bad image	34.3%
Feel it’s a waste of money	23.8%
Scary or dirty image	6.4%
Never had a chance to participate	4.5%
Nowhere close by to participate	2.3%
Other	2.9%
No particular reason	10.1%
No answer	6.8%

Q6: Currently Tokyo and other local governments are investigating legalising casinos. Would you support this legalisation? (Sample size=13,236)

Support legalisation	32.4%
Oppose legalisation	21.0%
Don’t know	44.9%
No answer	1.8%