世論 What Japan Thinks

It’s Sunday, so it must be Silly! This week’s oddity is from the masters of silly, goo Ranking, with a look at closet stinginess in men and women. The demographics for the survey are as vague as ever; all we know is that the data was collected between the 25th and 27th of September 2007.

If you want to be stingy in Japan yourself, may I heartily recommend Nihon Hacks as a great place to find money-saving tips.

In Japanese the word 節約, setsuyaku, means to economise, to save money, and has mostly good connotations. However, for this survey the word used was ケチ, kechi, which is a mostly negative term usually translated as stingy or penny-pinching.

Note that I would classify some of the actions as canny rather than stingy. Canny is using discount coupons, stingy is refusing to go near a shop unless you have said coupons. Oh, and if you find change in a vending machine, legally you must hand it in to the police.

For me personally, in the guy list I do just 4, 5, 7 and 15. My meanness is usually restricted to just not spending if at all possible!

Ranking results

Q: What acts of stinginess can you not tell others about? (Male)

Rank	Action	Score
1	Search for a gas station just to save one yen	100
2	Go to supermarkets just before closing time to grab all the half-price bargains	97.4
3	Don’t buy magazines, just stand and read them in the shop	91.4
4	Go to shops that have discount coupons	88.8
5	Use the internet to book things to save on phone bills	75.0
6	Buy stuff up to certain values to maximise point awards	74.1
7	Don’t buy tissue paper, but instead use free one handed out on the streets	70.7
8	Buy clothes in sales if at all possible	52.6
9	Take round-about train routes to minimise fares	48.3
10	Check vending machines for forgotton change	40.5
11	Take lots of extra plastic bags at the supermarket	38.8
12	Use free gift towels from newspaper companies at home	32.8
13	Buy stuff that can be resold at auctions	32.8
14	Cut my own hair	31.9
15	When hungry, scoff all the free samples at department stores	31.0
16	Try to only use stuff from 100 yen shops at home	29.3
17	Borrow CDs and DVDs from friends	16.4
18	Meet people at places I can reach using my train season ticket	14.7
19	When organising group events, reduce my own share of the cost	13.8
20	Pass received presents on to other people	12.9

Q: What acts of stinginess can you not tell others about? (Female)

Rank	Action	Score
1	Go to shops that have discount coupons	100
2	Buy clothes in sales if at all possible	87.4
3	Go to supermarkets just before closing time to grab all the half-price bargains	75.5
4	Don’t buy magazines, just stand and read them in the shop	69.9
5	Use the internet to book things to save on phone bills	65.0
6	Buy stuff up to certain values to maximise point awards	62.2
7	Don’t buy tissue paper, but instead use free one handed out on the streets	51.7
8	Search for a gas station just to save one yen	51.7
9	Use free gift towels from newspaper companies at home	42.7
10	Take lots of extra plastic bags at the supermarket	42.7
11	Take round-about train routes to minimise fares	37.1
12	Cut my own hair	28.7
13	Try to only use stuff from 100 yen shops at home	26.6
14	When hungry, scoff all the free samples at department stores	25.9
15	No matter how cheap, always split bills to the nearest yen	23.8
16	Buy stuff that can be resold at auctions	19.6
17	Collect and use free sample cosmetics	18.2
18	Check vending machines for forgotton change	17.5
19	Pass received presents on to other people	17.5
20	Borrow CDs and DVDs from friends	14.7