世論 What Japan Thinks

Forgive me stealing the title of a rather famous book for this latest survey from goo Ranking, which reveals a most interesting side of the Japanese psyche, one that many Westerners (including me) find difficult to comprehend. The survey is entitled ranking of unexpected traits in skillful people, suggesting what habits people would not expect to see in successful employees.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I suspect those who are not familiar with Japanese working practices will no doubt be laughing at some of the answers, and those who have worked in Japan will find that these answers explain some reactions you’ve seen to your Western working style. I must admit to not knowing why number one is unexpected, but 2 to 5 and perhaps 6 are pretty much much what one would expect from many effective people in the West. I think number 10 implies either someone too young, or who doesn’t look like they were up until 3am the night before wired on coffee and ciggies, free from bags under their eyes and other signs of stress and overwork as much as one who is too concerned with preening.

I chose to use the male pronoun for a reason.

Ranking results

Q: What habits would you not expect to see in successful workers? (Sample size=1,094)

Rank	Action	Score
1	Has many friends and acquaintances of different ages	100
2	Is sure to take all paid holidays	98.0
3	Doesn’t do overtime	94.6
4	Holds his private life dear	92.5
5	Is good at delegating, passing off work	90.5
6	Holds things to his own terms (doesn’t compromise)	89.8
7	Monosyllabic	87.1
8	Knows lots of trivia	86.4
9	Is considerate	78.2
10	Has sense of cleanliness, freshness	65.0
11	Communicating whilst drinking is a strong point	61.9
12	Completely immersed in his hobbies	55.4
13	Is a good dresser, can analyse himself	52.4
14	Looks after equipment well	45.6
15	Likes to party at night	42.5
16	Has an item he keeps dear (watch, briefcase, etc)	40.1
17	Not obsessed with money	37.4
18	Can’t sit still	35.4
19	Conservative appearance	34.4
20	Inarticulate on private matters	31.6