世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1][part 2]

Last year I translated an interesting survey on kimono, so as perhaps a followup, DIMSDRIVE Research recently took a look at the other Japanese national dress, the suit.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 31st of August 2007 6,366 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.9% of the sample was female, 1.0% in their teens, 15.3% in their twenties, 35.8% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 14.2% in their fifties, and 6.1% aged sixty or older. In addition, 39.0% of the sample were company employees (including contract employees), 1.6% were executive or board level, 4.2% worked in the public sector, 9.2% were self-employed, 12.9% were part-time or caqsual, and 33.1% were others, which included housewives, students and retired people.

I personally hate suits, but own two; one gets dragged out for the very occasional business trip, and the other one is in reserve for funerals. Our office is casual or company uniform, but I am about the only person in the office who wears a shirt (open-necked) on a daily basis, which is perhaps a bit odd.

For the purposes of this survey, a suit was defined as a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.

Research results

Q1: How many suits do you own? (Sample size=6,366)

One or two	26.7%
Three to five	39.4%
Six to ten	19.9%
Eleven to fifteen	5.6%
Sixteen to twenty	1.7%
Twenty-one to thirty	0.9%
Thirty-one or more	0.7%
None (to Q8)	5.1%

For men, about 90% of those in their twenties owned from zero up to five suits. As age increased, the number of suits owned also did, with less than 40% of those in their sixties having five or less. There was a similar trend for women, with nearly 95% of those in their twenties having five or less, down to about 57% of those in their sixties.

By employment, as one might guess, senior management owned the most suites, and part-timers the least.

Q2: When did you last buy a suit for yourself? (Sample size=6,040)

Within 3 months	8.1%
Within 6 months	10.6%
Within 1 year	17.5%
Within 3 years	26.8%
More than 3 years ago (to Q7)	36.0%
Never bought a suit (to Q7)	1.0%

I presume that the figure includes people who had suits bought for them, but had some role in the purchasing decision.

Q3: Within the last three years, where have you bought a suit? (Sample size=3,807, multiple answer)

Suit superstore	29.7%
Department store	20.8%
Hypermarket	20.6%
Fashion mall	11.8%
Fashion brand store	10.6%
Select shop	6.3%
Suit shop (to SQs)	5.9%
Two price suit shop	3.8%
Large clothes retailer	2.8%
Other	3.1%
Can’t remember	1.7%

Two-price suit shops are slightly upmarket suit superstores, with only two basic suit prices for all their range.

Q3SQ1: How satisfied are you with the suit you purchase at a two price suit shop? (Sample size=145)

Very satisified	8.3%
Somewhat satisified	72.4%
Can’t say either way	17.2%
Somewhat dissatisified	1.4%
Totally dissatisified	0.7%

Q3SQ2: What do you like about two price suit shops? (Sample size=145, multiple answer)

Cheap	75.9%
Can safely buy	49.0%
Wide variety of sizes	31.7%
Easy to enter shop	31.7%
Each to choose display	22.8%
Wide variety of designs	20.0%
Not pushy sales staff	19.3%
Good designs	17.9%
Can adjust size quickly	13.8%
Can buy tie, shoes, etc at the same time	12.4%
Other	0.0%
Nothing in particular	2.8%

Q4: About how much do usually pay for a suit? (Sample size=3,807)

Under 10,000 yen	12.6%
Under 20,000 yen	29.1%
Under 30,000 yen	24.7%
Under 50,000 yen	21.5%
Under 100,000 yen	8.3%
Under 150,000 yen	1.4%
Under 200,000 yen	0.1%
More than 200,000 yen	0.3%
Can’t remember	2.0%

[part 1][part 2]

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