世論 What Japan Thinks

I was prompted to translate this survey by Mari’s recent mention of such cars. Ita-sha, literally painful cars (to look at, or from the point of view of the car?), painted up with anime characters of the so-called moe kind, which usually means infeasibly large-breasted schoolgirls. This recent survey published by iShare on the topic of car customisation found almost one in three willing, to use the vernacular, to rice up their cars.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of October 2008 424 members of the free email forwarding service CLUB BBQ completed a private online questionnaire. 53.8% of the sample were male, 15.3% in their twenties, 49.3% in their thirties, 26.7% in their forties, and 8.7% in their teens or fifty or older. The sample is a bit small to draw conclusions from, but the topic is quite fun so it would be a shame not to translate this one.

I’ve never seen a manga-adorned car myself, although there is no shortage of be-spoilered and be-skirted mini-vans farting around town with their after-market exhausts which certainly qualify as ita-sha in terms of my own eyes and ears.

Research results

Q1: Do you drive a car? (Sample size=424)

	All	Male N=228	Female N=196
Have own car (to SQs)	43.9%	53.9%	32.1%
Family, etc have car, I use it too (to SQs)	18.4%	16.2%	20.9%
Family, etc have car, but I don’t use it (to SQs)	8.3%	3.5%	13.8%
Don’t have a car at all	29.5%	26.3%	33.2%

Q1SQ1: What kind of car is it? (If more than one, choose the main car) (Sample size=299)

	All	Male N=168	Female N=131
Under 660 cc mini-car	22.7%	16.7%	30.5%
Sedan	19.1%	18.5%	19.8%
Mini-van	17.4%	17.9%	16.8%
Station wagon	16.4%	17.9%	14.5%
RV	8.7%	11.9%	4.6%
Coupe	7.0%	7.7%	6.1%
Other	8.7%	9.5%	7.6%

Q1SQ2: Would you like to customise this car from Q1SQ1? (Sample size=299)

	All	Male N=168	Female N=131
Yes (to SQ3)	28.8%	39.3%	15.3%
No	71.2%	60.7%	84.7%

Q1SQ3: What kinds of customisation would you like to do? (Sample size=86, multiple answer)

Wheels	62.8%
Car satellite navigation system	60.5%
Tyres	58.1%
Interior	48.8%
Exterior	44.2%
Security parts	37.2%
Suspension	37.2%
Air intake, exhaust	31.4%
Wings (skirts, spoiler, etc)	10.5%
Other	3.5%

Installing a car navi system hardly seems like customisation to me!

Q2: Do you want a moe paint jobbed ita-sha? (Sample size=424)

	All	Male N=228	Female N=196
Wouldn’t be seen dead in one	89.2%	85.5%	93.4%
Would want to ride in a friend’s	8.7%	11.4%	5.6%
Would want my own ita-sha	2.1%	3.1%	1.0%