世論 What Japan Thinks

Energy drinks are a big business in Japan, but I do try to avoid them. However, this recent survey from iShare Inc showed that about three in five Japanese aged between 30 and 59 imbibe these nutritional drinks.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 10th of March 2009 495 mobile phone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.4% of the sample were male, 23.8% in their thirties, 31.5% in their forties, and 44.4% in their fifties.

Taurine seems to have some sort of benefit to muscles and removing fatty deposits from livers, but no proven energy boost, despite it being sold as such in Japan.

Research results

Q1: Do you drink nutritional drinks? (Sample size=495)

	All	Male N=279	Female N=216
Regularly drink (to SQ1, SQ3, SQ4)	3.6%	3.9%	3.2%
Drink as needed (to SQ2, SQ3, SQ4)	54.5%	54.5%	54.6%
Don’t drink	41.8%	41.6%	42.1%

Q1SQ1: Why do you regularly drink nutritional drinks? (Sample size=18, multiple answer)

To recover from fatigue	61.1%
For supplementary nutrition	38.9%
As anti-aging	27.8%
When I want to concentrate	22.2%
To combat drowsiness	16.7%
To maintain skin condition	11.1%
For detox effect	5.6%
Other	11.1%

Q1SQ2: Why do you drink nutritional drinks as needed? (Sample size=270, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=152	Female N=118
To recover from fatigue	77.4%	77.6%	77.1%
For supplementary nutrition	47.8%	50.7%	44.1%
When I catch a cold	44.4%	36.2%	55.1%
To combat drowsiness	44.4%	36.2%	55.1%
When I want to get fired up	17.8%	17.8%	17.8%
When hung-over	11.9%	13.2%	10.2%
When staying up all night	5.2%	3.9%	6.8%
When I want to concentrate	4.8%	5.3%	4.2%
To maintain skin condition	4.4%	1.3%	8.5%
As anti-aging	2.6%	1.3%	4.2%
To address anemia	1.9%	0.7%	3.4%
For detox effect	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%
Other	1.5%	2.0%	0.8%

Q1SQ3: About how much do you spend on the nutritional drink you usually buy? (Sample size=288)

	All	Male N=163	Female N=125
Under 100 yen	8.7%	9.2%	8.0%
Between 100 and 199 yen	41.3%	42.3%	40.0%
Between 200 and 299 yen	27.8%	26.4%	29.6%
Between 300 and 499 yen	11.1%	11.0%	11.2%
Between 500 and 999 yen	7.3%	7.4%	7.2%
Between 1,000 and 1,999 yen	2.1%	2.5%	1.6%
2,000 yen or more	1.7%	1.2%	2.4%

Q1SQ4: Which one of the following kinds of nutritional drink would you most want to drink? (Sample size=288)

	All	Male N=163	Female N=125
Taurine-based	28.1%	35.6%	18.4%
Royal jelly-based	24.7%	30.7%	16.8%
Low-calorie	11.8%	7.4%	17.6%
Collagen-based	11.5%	4.3%	20.8%
No preservatives	5.2%	4.3%	6.4%
Fizzy	3.8%	4.9%	2.4%
Non-alcohol	2.4%	1.8%	3.2%
Non-sugar	2.1%	1.8%	2.4%
Fruit-flavoured	1.7%	0.6%	3.2%
Non-caffeine	0.7%	0.6%	0.8%
None of the above	8.0%	8.0%	8.0%