世論 What Japan Thinks

With tomorrow being April Fools’ Day, what would be more appropriate than a look with iShare at virtual April Fools.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 13th of March 2009 380 mobile phone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 37.4% in their twenties, 27.4% in their thirties, and 35.3% in their forties.

April Fools’ Day is I feel not widely known in Japan, although that wasn’t one of the questions asked in this survey. I always keep thinking I ought to do an April Fool here, but I never come up with a good idea. Or am I just saying that to try to catch you off your guard? Or did I just state that in order to confuse you? You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow!

For reference, the JIAFA, Japan Internet April Fool Association, mentioned in Q3 has its website here, although it is rather a barren place. It might be a bit more lively tomorrow, however.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever directly told anyone an April Fool fib? (Sample size=380)

	All	Male N=203	Female N=177
Yes	33.2%	31.0%	35.6%
No	66.8%	69.0%	64.4%

Q2: Have you ever written an April Fool fib, uploaded fake April Fool contents to the web? (Sample size=380)

	All	Male N=203	Female N=177
Yes	7.6%	7.9%	7.3%
No	92.4%	92.1%	92.7%

Q3: Do you know of the JIAFA, Japan Internet April Fool Association? (Sample size=380)

	All	Male N=203	Female N=177
Yes	6.6%	8.4%	4.5%
No	93.4%	91.6%	95.5%

Q4: Do you check the internet for April Fool stories? (Sample size=380)

	All	Male N=203	Female N=177
Yes, because I like it (to SQ)	25.0%	25.1%	24.9%
Yes, but I don’t like it (to SQ)	12.9%	12.8%	13.0%
No	62.1%	62.1%	62.1%

Q4SQ: Have you ever been taken in by an internet April Fool? (Sample size=144)

	All	Male N=77	Female N=67
Yes	33.3%	33.8%	32.8%
No	66.7%	66.2%	67.2%