世論 What Japan Thinks

With almost every day bringing more bad news of how the economic situation at both home and abroad is deteriorating, this recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into the economy is most timely.

Demographics

Between the 28th or January and the 11th of February 2009 10,233 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were male, 1.0% in their teens, 12.5% in their twenties, 33.2% in their thirties, 29.9% in thri forties, 16.1% in their fifties, and 7.3% in their sixties. By occupation, 35.2% were full-time regular employees, 19.4% housewives, 11.3% part-time or casual, 7.6% unemployed, 6.9% self-employed, 6.1% contract workers or temps, 3.6% civil servants, 2.8% students, 2.6% freelance, 2.2% senior management or board-level, 0.9% other governmental organisation employees, and 1.4% in other jobs.

We’ve had major changes at the office due to our sales falling off a cliff. Overtime has been cut (this actually is a good thing, IMO), bonuses cut too due to a complex link between overtime and bonuses, management-level pay and expense account cuts, etc, etc. However, the best thing they could do is to address Warm Biz and Cool Biz as more than just a slogan and actually put some effort into ensuring that the air conditioning runs efficiently. How are you doing?

Research results

Q1: How much do you personally feel the economic decline, recession? (Sample size=10,233)

Feel it strongly	49.3%
Feel it to some degree	29.6%
Feel it a little	13.9%
Don’t really feel it	5.4%
Don’t feel it at all	0.9%
Don’t know	0.9%

By sex, men felt it slightly more, and by age, older groups felt it more than younger ones.

Q2: When do you think the economy will recover? (Sample size=10,233)

Within a year	3.8%
Within three years	35.4%
Within five years	25.2%
Within ten years	8.5%
More than ten years	1.9%
Will never recover	8.4%
Don’t know	16.8%

Q3: For each of the following spending categories, compared with last year how much have your or your family economised? (Sample size=10,233)

	Stopped spending	Economised drastically	Economised a little	Same or more	Never spent money on it before	Don’t know
Eating out	7.1%	39.0%	29.4%	15.4%	7.3%	2.8%
Food bills	1.0%	28.7%	43.3%	20.8%	3.7%	2.5%
Fashion	7.9%	35.0%	27.2%	13.7%	14.3%	3.9%
Hobbies	6.1%	31.5%	30.4%	23.2%	6.0%	2.8%
Socialising	5.3%	30.7%	30.9%	19.6%	10.5%	3.0%
Travel, leisure	9.4%	30.8%	26.5%	19.6%	4.1%	9.6%
Utilities	0.7%	22.5%	40.6%	28.3%	4.1%	3.8%
Transportation	1.5%	26.6%	35.0%	26.2%	7.2%	3.5%

Q4: For what purpose are you going use your 12,000 yen cash handout? (Sample size=10,233, multiple answer)

Living expenses	38.6%
Savings	30.0%
Food	26.3%
Eating out	14.2%
Travel, leisure	11.5%
Repay loan	8.5%
Pay insurance, tax, etc	7.9%
Invest in stocks, etc	1.8%
Other	2.4%
Don’t know	9.6%

Q5: How much of an effect do you think the cash handout will have in countering the recession? (Sample size=10,233, multiple answer)

Significant effect	1.5%
Some degree of effect	5.5%
Little effect	12.6%
No significant effect	33.7%
No effect at all	34.7%
Will actually make economy worse	8.9%
Don’t know	3.1%

Q6: How much of an effect has the recession had at your place of work? (Sample size=6,068, employees)

Significant effect (to SQ)	38.9%
Some effect (to SQ)	34.9%
Can’t say either way	13.1%
No significant effect	8.0%
No effect at all	2.1%
Don’t know	3.0%

By company size, those of 3,000 employees or more were slightly more affected than smaller companies. By industry, 94.4% of the car industry workers were affected, 92.9% of the electricity and electricals, and 87.8% of other manufacturing. Best off were those in the medical field, with just 37.9% reporting an effect, followed by public servants at 57.5%.

Q6SQ: What effects has the recession caused at your place of work? (Sample size=4,476)

Cost reduction	64.8%
Bonus cut	31.3%
Salary cut	21.8%
Decrease in non-regular employees	20.6%
Shorter hours	20.1%
Directors’ remuneration cut	15.0%
Working days cut	13.4%
Decrease in regular employees	9.9%
Work-sharing	4.3%
Other	3.4%
Nothing in particular	11.9%
Don’t know	5.8%
Don’t want to answer	1.0%

Q7: Compared to last year, how has the headcount at your place of work changed? (Sample size=6,068, employees)

Significantly increased	1.1%
Increased a little	8.0%
No change	50.5%
Decreased a little	24.6%
Significantly decreased	7.4%
Don’t know	8.4%

Q8: Compared to last year, how has your own personal workload and overall workload at your place of work changed? (Sample size=6,068, employees)

	Own workload	Workplace workload
Significantly increased	9.1%	4.5%
Increased a little	17.0%	12.8%
No change	40.6%	31.7%
Decreased a little	15.3%	22.1%
Significantly decreased	13.1%	20.6%
Completely disappeared	0.9%	0.6%
Don’t know	4.0%	7.7%