世論 What Japan Thinks

A recent topic that has cropped up here and there under the heading of “eco” in Japan (“eco” these days is just no more than a catch-all for money-saving in general) has been taking your left-over food home from restaurants, a subject looked at recently by iShare.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 27th of March 2009 339 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 39.2% in their twenties, 28.9% in their thirties, and 31.9% in their forties.

I’ve never taken home a doggy bag in Japan, as I’ve always finished the food put in front of me, unless it was too digusting to eat. Conversely, I dislike the way it gets forced upon you in the USA, especially as when I’m staying in a hotel there’s no way to reheat it even if I wanted to finish it off the next day. I wonder what is the proper etiquette for this?

Here’s two recent stories on doggy bags in Japan, one from the Japan Times (see the last few paragraphs) and one from Tokyofoodcast, looking at a doggy bag campaign in Meguro, Tokyo.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever taken home part of a meal you couldn’t eat at a restaurant? (Sample size=339)

	All	Male N=178	Female N=161
Yes	47.2%	40.4%	54.7%
No	52.8%	59.6%	45.3%

Q2: If it was possible, would you want to take home uneaten food from a restaurant? (Sample size=339)

	All	Male N=178	Female N=161
Want to	37.5%	28.7%	47.2%
Perhaps want to	36.6%	38.2%	34.8%
Perhaps don’t want to	13.0%	15.2%	10.6%
Don’t want to	13.0%	18.0%	7.5%

Q3: In Europe and the USA taking food home from restaurants is a normal behaviour. Do you agree with this? (Sample size=339)

	All	Male N=178	Female N=161
Agree	62.5%	60.7%	64.6%
Perhaps agree	26.3%	25.3%	27.3%
Perhaps disagree	5.9%	6.2%	5.6%
Disagree	5.3%	7.9%	2.5%

Q4: You can buy a washable and reusable special taking food home doggy bag? Did you know such a doggy bag existed? (Sample size=339)

	All	Male N=178	Female N=161
Yes (to SQ1)	26.0%	18.5%	34.2%
No (to SQ2)	74.0%	81.5%	65.8%

Q4SQ1: Do you have such a doggy bag? (Sample size=88)

	All	Male N=33	Female N=55
Yes	1.1%	0.0%	1.8%
No (to SQ2)	98.9%	100.0%	98.2%

Q4SQ2: Would you like to have such a doggy bag? (Sample size=338)

	All	Male N=178	Female N=160
Want one	12.4%	10.1%	14.9%
Want one a little	47.6%	46.1%	49.4%
Don’t want one	39.9%	43.8%	35.6%

Q5: Do you have an eco bag (reusable shopping bag), “my hashi” personal reusable chopsticks, or “my bottle”, personal reusable thermos flask? (Sample size=339, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=178	Female N=161
Eco bag	90.1%	82.8%	95.5%
My bottle	41.2%	27.3%	51.5%
My hashi chopsticks	32.6%	30.3%	34.3%
None of the above	31.3%	44.4%	16.8%