世論 What Japan Thinks

With today being Children’s Day in Japan, I present a survey that is sort-of connected to the theme, a look with goo Ranking at hidden secrets that prevent people rating themselves as proper adults, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of March 2009 1,043 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 7.8% in their teens, 17.1% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 24.8% in their forties, 11.4% in their fifties, and 10.7% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

With these silly goo Rankings I do occasionally get creative with my translation, and I get some feedback from my readers about my less than literal translations, but I hope that since these surveys are just a bit of fun, any creativity (or flat-out errors) can be excused. For example, this survey question would directly translate as – actually, now I’ve started analysing my translation I cannot actually give a good literal translation. Perhaps I shouldn’t have even started this train of thought!

Talking of literal translations, the first number six for women actually reads “I can’t eat sushi without removing the rust“, so I hope you’ll let me off with that change!

I haven’t a clue why closing one’s eyes while washing one’s hair would be scary, barring being traumatised by watching Psycho at too young an age.

Ranking results

Q: What secrets do you have that prevent you being rated as a proper adult? (Sample size=544, male)

Rank		Score
1	I’ve got no savings	100
2	I’ve been trying to find myself for quite a long time	74.2
3	I play computer games all night	71.0
4=	I get my parents to do my washing	41.9
4=	I’ve never ironed anything	41.9
4=	I can’t cook	41.9
7	I’m useless at cleaning	38.7
8	I can’t swim	35.5
9	I call my parents Mama and Papa	32.3
10=	I’m still going through my rebellious phase	29.0
10=	I still get pocket money from my parents	29.0
12=	My parents call me “chan”	25.8
12=	I can’t hold chopsticks, pens properly	25.8
14	I love reading elementary schoolchildren targeted manga comics	22.6
15	I’ve pestered my parents to buy me something I wanted	16.1
16=	My parents make my lunchbox	12.9
16=	I can’t decide anything without consulting my parents	12.9
18=	I wear clothes my mother buys me	9.7
18=	I get scared and can’t sleep with the lights off	9.7
18=	I get homesick whenever I’m away from home	9.7

Q: What secrets do you have that prevent you being rated as a proper adult? (Sample size=499, female)

Rank		Score
1	I’ve got no savings	100
2	I’m useless at cleaning	69.2
3	I’ve been trying to find myself for quite a long time	67.3
4	I can’t hold chopsticks, pens properly	59.6
5	I can’t cook	44.2
6=	I can’t eat sushi without removing the wasabi (horse radish)	38.5
6=	My parents call me “chan”	38.5
8	I get my parents to do my washing	36.5
9	I sleep with my teddy bear	36.5
10=	I call my parents Mama and Papa	34.6
10=	I can’t live alone as I get lonely	34.6
10=	My parents make my lunchbox	34.6
13	I play computer games all night	32.7
14=	I can’t swim	26.9
14=	I still get pocket money from my parents	26.9
16	I’m still going through rebellious phase	23.1
17=	I get scared and can’t sleep with the lights off	21.2
17=	When washing my hair I get scared if I don’t open my eyes	21.2
17=	I’ve pestered my parents to buy me something I wanted	21.2
20	I get homesick whenever I’m away from home	17.3