世論 What Japan Thinks

People sleeping on the train, or feigning sleep so they don’t need to give up their seat, is a staple feature of the Japanese rail system, and something that I do most mornings too. The worry about sleeping past your stop was the subject tackled by this recent survey from iShare.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 15th of October 2009 568 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.1% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, and 34.2% in their forties.

Despite needing three trains to get to and from work every day, I’ve never actually slept past my stop, although more than once or twice I’ve woken up after the train has stopped and had to fight my way through the boarding hoards to get off. My first train in the morning is all the way to the end of the line, so I have once been woken by a fellow passenger as I was still dead to the world when we got to the terminal.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever fallen asleep on a train, bus, etc and gone past your destination? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=330	Female N=238
Yes, often (to SQs)	2.6%	3.3%	1.7%
Yes, sometimes (to SQs)	53.7%	54.8%	52.1%
No, never	43.7%	41.8%	46.2%

Q1SQ1: Have you ever been unable to get back home after sleeping past your destination? (Sample size=320)

	All	Male N=192	Female N=128
Yes	24.7%	31.8%	14.1%
No	75.3%	68.2%	85.9%

Q1SQ2: Have you ever woken up in an unexpected place after sleeping past your destination? (Sample size=320)

	All	Male N=192	Female N=128
Yes	18.1%	21.9%	12.5%
No	81.9%	78.1%	87.5%

Q2: Are you the sort of person who can fall asleep anywhere? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=330	Female N=238
Yes, anywhere	13.7%	14.2%	13.0%
Yes, some places	46.1%	48.5%	42.9%
No, not really	30.5%	29.4%	31.9%
No, not at all	9.7%	7.9%	12.2%

Q3: Do you get drowsy during the average day? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=330	Female N=238
Yes, totally	13.9%	13.6%	14.3%
Yes, somewhat	46.8%	44.5%	50.0%
Average	25.9%	28.2%	22.7%
No, not really	10.0%	10.3%	9.7%
No, not at all	3.3%	3.3%	3.4%