世論 What Japan Thinks

My wife is one of these frigid women, as her feet and hands are often painfully cold even on warm days, a sympton shared with many others of both sexes according to this survey from iShare into taking measures to address cold extermities.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 26th of October 2009 544 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.4% of the sample were male, 35.8% in their twenties, 32.4% in their thirties, and 31.8% in their forties.

I’ve read a bit of research that suggested that stiff shoulders is a cultural thing; under conditions where many westerners report headaches, Japanese report stiff shoulders; however, ethinically Japanese people brought up in the west tend to report headaches rather than stiff shoulders. Therefore, I wonder if cold hands and feet are a similar issue, as poor circulation or narrowed blood vessels is one cause of both stiff shoulders and cold extremities.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever felt your body is cold? (Sample size=544)

	All	Male N=312	Female N=232
Often (to SQs)	21.9%	11.5%	35.8%
Sometimes (to SQs)	33.6%	30.1%	38.4%
Rarely (to SQs)	16.5%	19.9%	12.1%
Never	27.9%	38.5%	13.8%

Q1SQ1: In which season do you most often feel your body is cold? (Sample size=392)

	All	Male N=192	Female N=200
Spring	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%
Summer	3.3%	2.6%	4.0%
Autumn	5.4%	7.8%	3.0%
Winter	78.1%	80.7%	75.5%
All year round	13.0%	8.9%	17.0%

Q1SQ2: Other than feelings of cold, what other conditions are you concerned about? (Sample size=392, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=192	Female N=200
Easily get stiff shoulders	44.6%	39.1%	50.0%
Easily get fatigued	41.1%	33.9%	48.0%
Easily build up stress	30.4%	28.6%	32.0%
Easily get upset stomach	26.8%	22.4%	31.0%
Can’t sleep at nights	22.2%	21.9%	22.5%
Bags under my eyes	16.3%	7.8%	24.5%
Swollen ankles	16.1%	5.7%	26.0%
Sickly face colour	12.2%	6.2%	18.0%
Hot flushes in face only	6.6%	3.5%	9.5%
Other	3.6%	4.2%	3.0%
None	30.6%	36.5%	25.0%

Q2: Do you take any measures against feeling your body is cold? (Sample size=544)

	All	Male N=312	Female N=232
Yes, currently do (to SQ)	36.2%	22.4%	54.7%
No, but used to (to SQ)	7.0%	6.4%	7.8%
No, never	56.8%	71.2%	37.5%

Q2SQ: What measures do you take against feeling your body is cold? (Sample size=235, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=90	Female N=145
Wrap up warm	78.7%	67.8%	85.5%
Eat, drink something warming	62.1%	48.9%	70.3%
Have a bath	46.0%	38.9%	50.3%
Do exercise	26.8%	26.7%	26.9%
Avoid eating, drinking cooling foods	19.1%	14.4%	22.1%
Take herbal medicines	9.4%	4.4%	12.4%
Other	4.3%	6.7%	2.8%