This is a survey from the start of March that I only got round to translating now, but the information is hopefully worth the wait! The survey was conducted by Yahoo! Japan Value Insight in Japan, Embrain.co.ltd in South Korea, and INFO BRIDGE CHINA Co., Ltd in Japan, South Korea, and China awareness.
Demographics
Between the 29th of February and 4th of March 2008 500 Japanese, 547 South Koreans, and 524 Chinese took part in a closed internet-based questionnaire. All respondents were aged between 20 and 59, but a detailed breakdown was not provided. The Chinese respondents were from all over China, but given availability of internet access, there was perhaps a significant bias towards middle-class city dwellers in their sample.
Note that from now on I will use just Korea, but I always mean South Korea.
Q2A is interesting, in that there is a very noticable lack of pride in their own products amongst young Japanese. The reason for this disaffection would be well worth investigating – I cannot think of any particular issue that would make youths and youths only react in this way. Indeed, given the number of scandals last year involving Japanese products, foodstuffs in particular, I am very surprised that there is no real lack of pride amongst older people, although perhaps given the context of the survey, people were thinking internationally, so stale biscuits don’t really affect Japan as a global brand.
Research results
The first two questions below are executive summaries of tables below, so I’ll keep them separate as they are worth highlighting.
Q1: How trustworthy are your own country’s products and brands?
| |
Japan
N=500 |
Korea
N=547 |
China
N=524 |
| Extremely trustworthy |
29.6% |
13.5% |
15.8% |
| Trustworthy |
61.2% |
73.9% |
40.5% |
Q2: How proud are you of your own country’s products and brands?
| |
Japan
N=500 |
Korea
N=547 |
China
N=524 |
| Extermely proud |
18.6% |
14.4% |
13.7% |
| Proud |
56.2% |
69.5% |
42.9% |
Q2A: How proud are you of your own country’s products and brands? (Sample size=500, Japanese only, by age)
| |
Twenties
N=111 |
Thirties
N=137 |
Forties
N=113 |
Fifties
N=139 |
| Extermely proud |
16.2% |
21.2% |
18.6% |
18.0% |
| Proud |
50.0% |
52.6% |
60.2% |
61.2% |
| Can’t say either way |
19.8% |
24.1% |
16.8% |
17.3% |
| Not proud |
11.7% |
2.2% |
3.5% |
2.9% |
| Not proud at all |
1.8% |
0.0% |
0.9% |
0.7% |
Q3: What image do you have of the age of the typical citizen?
| |
Japan
N=500 |
Korea
N=547 |
China
N=524 |
| Japanese |
45.5 |
38.0 |
39.9 |
| Korean |
33.0 |
34.0 |
32.1 |
| Chinese |
32.0 |
29.1 |
33.3 |
To read this chart, the columns are for the replies from each country, and the rows are the age image of each country. So, for example, the Japanese think that China has an age of 32.0 years old.
Q4A: What Japanese corporation first comes to mind? (Sample size=500, Japanese, free answer)
| Rank |
Corporation |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Toyota |
162 |
32.4% |
| 2 |
Sony |
114 |
22.8% |
| 3 |
Matsushita (Panasonic) |
45 |
9.0% |
Q4B: What Japanese brand first comes to mind? (Sample size=500, Japanese, free answer)
| Rank |
Brand |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Sony |
48 |
9.6% |
| 2 |
Panasonic/National |
45 |
9.0% |
| 3 |
Toyota |
41 |
8.2% |
Q4C: What Japanese product first comes to mind? (Sample size=500, Japanese, free answer)
| Rank |
Product |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Cars |
107 |
21.4% |
| 2 |
Foodstuffs |
26 |
5.2% |
| 3= |
Electrics, home electronics, digital |
20 |
4.0% |
| 3= |
AQUOS (television) |
20 |
4.0% |
AQUOS is Sharp’s television brand, so I’m not sure exactly why it appears here explicitly rather than just a generic television or display panel product. It could be a misprint, of course.
Q5A: What Korean corporation first comes to mind? (Sample size=500, Japanese, free answer)
| Rank |
Corporation |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Samsung |
184 |
36.8% |
| 2 |
Hyundai |
76 |
15.2% |
| 3 |
LG |
18 |
3.6% |
Q5B: What Korean brand first comes to mind? (Sample size=500, Japanese, free answer)
| Rank |
Brand |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Samsung |
53 |
10.6% |
| 2 |
Hyundai |
19 |
3.8% |
| 3 |
Lotte |
8 |
1.6% |
Q5C: What Korean product first comes to mind? (Sample size=500, Japanese, free answer)
| Rank |
Product |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Kimchi |
26 |
5.2% |
| 2 |
Cars |
16 |
3.2% |
| 3 |
LCD products |
14 |
2.8% |
Q6A: What Chinese corporation first comes to mind? (Sample size=500, Japanese, free answer)
| Rank |
Corporation |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Tianyang Foods |
31 |
6.2% |
| 2 |
Lenovo |
23 |
4.6% |
| 3 |
Haier |
9 |
1.8% |
Q6B: What Chinese brand first comes to mind? (Sample size=500, Japanese, free answer)
| Rank |
Brand |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Lenovo |
10 |
2.0% |
| 2= |
Haier |
3 |
0.6% |
| 2= |
Tsingtao Beer |
3 |
0.6% |
Q6C: What Chinese product first comes to mind? (Sample size=500, Japanese, free answer)
| Rank |
Product |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Gyoza |
16 |
3.2% |
| 2 |
Clothes |
11 |
2.2% |
| 3 |
Food and drink |
7 |
1.4% |
For Korean people on Japan, 54% chose Sony as the corporation, 14% Toyota. For brand, Sony was was out in the lead again at 25%, with the followers including Lexus, Toyota, Sony Walkman and VAIO. For Koreans on Korea, Samsung was the top corporation at 78%, and the top brand at 20%, equal with Samsung’s mobile phone brand ANYCALL. For China, Haier was top corporate and brand, at 16% and 8% respectively.
For Chinese people on Japan, 33% chose Sony and 19% Panasonic for corporations. For brands, the same two companies were on 36% and 18% respectively, with Toyota, Toshiba and Mitsubishi following on behind. For Korean corporations and brands, Samsung was chosen by the majority in both cases, with LG and Hyundai following on behind. For their own country’s corporation and brand, Chinese chose Haier and Lenovo with around 30% for both.
Q7: Do you rate Japanese products, brands in the following categories? (Multiple answer)
| |
Japan
N=500 |
Korea
N=547 |
China
N=524 |
| High quality |
92.2% |
86.5% |
74.2% |
| Durable |
79.2% |
77.0% |
60.9% |
| Popular |
73.8% |
79.2% |
60.5% |
| Good service |
72.0% |
33.3% |
33.8% |
| High class |
66.8% |
69.8% |
62.2% |
| Good design |
64.8% |
76.1% |
69.1% |
| Leading-edge |
62.4% |
69.3% |
63.9% |
| Low price |
5.6% |
5.9% |
8.0% |
I suspect the actual question was along the lines of how do you rate them, with answers being great, good, bad, terrible, but for the sake of abbreviation, they totalled up the positive replies.
Q8: How do you rate your own Korean products, brands in the following categories? (Sample size=547, multiple answer)
| |
Extremely well |
Well |
| High quality |
10.8% |
68.2% |
| Good service |
19.0% |
51.0% |
| Leading-edge |
15.2% |
48.3% |
| Good design |
13.0% |
50.3% |
| Popular |
11.7% |
50.8% |
| Durable |
7.1% |
52.8% |
| High class |
3.7% |
48.1% |
| Low price |
1.6% |
15.9% |
Q9: How do you rate your own Chinese products, brands in the following categories? (Sample size=524, multiple answer)
| |
Extremely well |
Well |
| Low price |
20.2% |
52.3% |
| Durable |
9.9% |
45.8% |
| Popular |
7.3% |
34.0% |
| High quality |
5.7% |
27.1% |
| Good service |
5.9% |
23.7% |
| Leading-edge |
3.6% |
21.0% |
| Good design |
4.2% |
18.3% |
| High class |
3.8% |
12.2% |
Q10: How satisfied are you with the following economic situations? (Multiple answer)
| |
Japan
N=500 |
Korea
N=547 |
China
N=524 |
| Current family economic situation is good |
22.8% |
20.5% |
49.4% |
| Current country economic situation is good |
4.8% |
6.6% |
40.5% |
| Overall, I’m satisfied with personal and family economic lifestyle |
18.8% |
28.9% |
40.6% |
| For a stable retirement, I’m building up financial, property, etc assets |
21.6% |
28.3% |
52.5% |
Q11: How do you see Japan’s future economic situation?
| |
Japan
N=500 |
Korea
N=547 |
China
N=524 |
| Exceptional improvement |
0.4% |
4.0% |
8.2% |
| Improvement |
8.0% |
38.8% |
24.0% |
| No change |
32.8% |
51.0% |
50.4% |
| Deterioration |
48.0% |
5.3% |
16.2% |
| Exceptional deterioration |
10.9% |
0.9% |
6.1% |
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