What Japanese wish their spouses would quit doing
Following up, I suppose, on a recent ranking survey regarding what were the basic dealbreakers for potential spouses, goo Rankings came up with another entertaining survey looking at what husbands’ bad habits wives want to tell them to fix, but just can’t, and vice versa. The survey was conducted between the 28th and 30th of August 2007.
My wife informs me that she has no bad habits that I should ask her to fix (now that’s a bad habit that doesn’t feature on the list!), but my two main bad habits also don’t feature on the list, namely adjusting the lay of the land, as it were, and noxious gas emissions.
I suppose that number 15 for men and 18 for women is shorthand for a lack of rumpy-pumpy.
Ranking results
Q: What bad habits of your spouse do you wish they would fix, but you just can’t ask them?
Rank I wish hubby wouldn’t… Score I wish wifey wouldn’t… Score 1 Not tidy up 100 Not tidy up 100 2 Smoke 91.8 Horde stuff 64.2 3 Not help with the housework 75.3 Not worry about getting fat 49.3 4 Have poor fashion sense 66.0 Waste money 47.8 5 Smell (body odour, bad breath) 64.9 Not tidy eyebrows, underarm hair, etc 43.3 6 Horde stuff 58.8 Smoke 41.8 7 Laze about the home on holidays 54.6 Not do housework 41.8 8 Not worry about getting fat 54.6 Smell (body odour, bad breath) 40.3 9 Waste money 51.5 Chuck stuff away without asking 38.8 10 Leave the toilet lid up 41.2 Have poor fashion sense 37.3 11 Touch my body 38.1 Talk too much 35.8 12 Be busy at work 38.1 Not use make-up, poor at make-up 34.3 13 Not tidy up nose hair, eyebrows, etc 33.0 Wear naff knickers 32.8 14 Wear the same clothes indoors and outdoors 30.9 Go to bed before I get home 31.3 15 Have no friends 27.8 Only see me as father of children; not as a husband 23.9 16 Have little contact with me 25.8 Laze about the home on holidays 23.9 17 Have an expensive hobby 25.8 Have no friends 23.9 18 Only see me as mother of children; not as a wife 23.7 Have little contact with me 20.9 19 Be a bad drunk 22.7 Have an expensive hobby 17.9 20 Not shave 19.6 Touch my body 16.4
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What Japan Thinks… « いろは said,
October 14, 2007 @ 23:59
[…] http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/10/14/what-japanese-wish-their-spouses-would-quit-doing/ Posted by Natalie Filed in Japanese culture, Life in Japan […]
Gaijin in Gunma said,
October 15, 2007 @ 09:53
“rumpy-pumpy” sounds like an activity my wife will only alllow after 1/2 dozen chihais.
Arlen said,
October 15, 2007 @ 10:54
These results confused me slightly. The man wishes the wife *would* worry about getting fat? (i.e. wouldn’t not worry)
Ken Y-N said,
October 15, 2007 @ 11:47
Arlen, what it means is that husbands wish their wives (and vice versa) would start caring about their weight because they are getting fat, or in other words they want to tell their other half to go on a diet!
claytonian said,
October 15, 2007 @ 15:40
Japanese couples don’t want to be touched by each other? No wonder the population is going down…
Michael Rupp said,
October 16, 2007 @ 08:12
Very interesting!
A translation note ‘have few contacts’ might be better expressed as ‘not keeping in touch (with each other) ‘ you know ‘honey, i’m coming home late tonight (or not at all) type thing. Or during business trips, not checking in, etc…
And about the clothes, you have a double negative which is the opposite of the original, I think ‘not being able to distinguish between clothes to be worn indoors only and dressing properly when going out’ is the idea there.
What is up with the ‘don’t touch my body’ sentiment, eh? Unbelievable! Maybe they don’t like having their love handles squeezed?
Ken Y-N said,
October 16, 2007 @ 13:27
Hi Michael,
Thanks for the input! Yes, the first one was a mistake I’ve corrected! Yes, and I got the negatives mixed up!
As for the not touching, I suppose (I hope) it might be that sort of excessive groping!
What Japanese would love to tell their co-workers » 世論 What Japan Thinks said,
November 12, 2007 @ 22:13
[…] this quickie survey today and it suited my mood, so following up on a survey a few weeks ago on bad habits of spouses, here’s a look at bad habits in the office, courtesy of goo Ranking. The fieldwork for this […]