世論 What Japan Thinks

I hope you had, or are having, or are about to have as nice a St Valentine’s Day as I have had, but just in case you didn’t, in the hope of cheering you up by showing you some people who had a worse day than you, here are a couple of surveys from goo Ranking on first why friends can’t be lovers (with separate male and female results), and second on women’s and men’s miserable Valentine memories.

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’m not sure how many “no answers” there were for Q1, or if married people were asked to recall when they were single, etc.

Just in case the idea of obligatory chocolates is unfamiliar to you, last year Mari’s Diary covered how she feels about having to give chocolates to colleagues.

Photo taken by Kluv32.

Ranking results

Q1: Why do you think your friends cannot be lovers? (Sample size=1,094)

Rank	Reason	Score
1	No chance for an encounter (love at first sight, etc)	100
2	My standards are too high	96.3
3	I just don’t feel that way about them	63.7
4	Too much bother	58.1
5	Don’t have any confidence	47.9
6	KY, Kuuki ga Yomenai, cannot read the mood	44.9
7	I’m not a good talker	43.3
8	I’m not cute, not cool	39.8
9	I haven’t declared my love	37.2
10	Haven’t had the chance	35.6
11	I’m unkempt	34.0
12	I’m disorganised	31.9
13	Friend doesn’t listen to people	31.2
14	I’m not frank	28.8
15	Too busy with work or hobbies	28.4
16	I’m past my sell-by date	27.0
17	I’m not in regular employment	26.0
18	I’m an otaku	24.7
19	I’m fat	24.2
20	I’m calculating	23.5

Q1: Why do you think your friends cannot be lovers? (Sample size=1,094, by sex)

Rank	Male	Score	Female	Score
1	No chance for an encounter (love at first sight, etc)	100	My standards are too high	100
2	My standards are too high	79.4	No chance for an encounter (love at first sight, etc)	92.3
3	Too much bother	68.9	I just don’t feel that way about them	55.7
4	I just don’t feel that way about them	68.3	Too much bother	46.5
5	I’m not a good talker	57.2	KY, Kuuki ga Yomenai, cannot read the mood	41.3
6	Don’t have any confidence	55.0	Don’t have any confidence	39.5
7	I haven’t declared my love	53.9	I’m not cute	35.4
8	Haven’t had the chance	45.6	I’m not a good talker	30.6
9	KY, Kuuki ga Yomenai, cannot read the mood	45.0	Friend doesn’t listen to people	28.0
10	I’m not cool	41.7	I’m unkempt	26.9
11	I’m disorganised	41.1	Haven’t had the chance	26.2
12	I’m unkempt	40.6	Too busy with work or hobbies	25.5
13	I’m past my sell-by date	32.8	I’m not frank	25.1
14	Friend doesn’t listen to people	32.2	I haven’t declared my love	23.2
15	I’m not frank	31.1	I’m disorganised	23.2
16	I’m not in regular employment	30.0	I’m calculating	22.9
17	I’m an otaku	30.0	I’m fat	22.5
18	Too busy with work or hobbies	29.4	I’m not in regular employment	21.4
19	I’m fat	23.9	I’m past my sell-by date	21.0
20	I’m calculating	21.7	I’m an otaku	19.2

Q2: What’s your sad St Valentine’s Day memory? (Sample size=595, women)

Rank	Sad memory	Score
1	Too embarrassed to pass chocolates to the object of my desire	100
2	Only exchanged chocolates with female friends	51.6
3	Didn’t have anyone I wanted to give true love chocolate to	51.6
4	Bought myself chocolates and scoffed the lot	39.8
5	Gave far too many obligation chocolates, spending more on them than true love chocolates	26.9
6	Spent all night making chocolates	21.5
7	Object of my desire didn’t accept my chocolates	19.4
8	Although they were really true love chocolate, I said they were obligation chocolates	14.0
9	Mixed up true love chocolates and obligation chocolates	12.9
10	Got dumped by my boyfriend	12.9

Q2: What’s your sad St Valentine’s Day memory? (Sample size=499, men)

Rank	Sad memory	Score
1	Didn’t get any chocolates	100
2	Only got obligation chocolates	88.1
3	Got true love chocolates from a girl I didn’t like	40.4
4	Thought obligation chocolates were true love chocolates	37.6
5	Thought true love chocolates were obligation chocolates	25.7
6	Got less chocolate than anyone else	24.8
7	Only got chocolates from my mother or sister	21.1
8	A girl I fancied gave chocolates to someone else	18.3
9	Hand-made chocolates were disgusting	17.4
10	Thought I was sure to get chocolates from a girl, but she didn’t give me any	14.7