世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s yet another novel subject for a survey from MyVoice, where they look at a subject at which I excel, but my wife just cannot do, namely ironing.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 30th of October 2009 518 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.8% of the sample were male, 30.3% in their twenties, 34.0% in their thirties, and 35.7% in their forties.

One thing that did strike me when I first came to Japan was the lack of ironing of clothes, not just for men but women also, wearing fashionable clothing but covered in wrinkles. I like ironing myself, but I only bother with trousers and shirts. My mother goes as far as ironing socks, which I think is just a bit too keen! (Sorry Mum!)

Research results

Q1: Do you currently live by yourself? (Sample size=518)

	All	Male N=289	Female N=229
Yes	22.4%	26.6%	17.0%
No	77.6%	73.4%	83.0%

Q2: Have you ever done any ironing? (Sample size=518)

	All	Male N=289	Female N=229
Yes (to SQs)	72.6%	60.2%	88.2%
No	27.4%	39.8%	11.8%

Sadly, they didn’t cross-reference the results with whether people lived alone or not.

Q2SQ1: Are you skilled at ironing clothes neatly? (Sample size=376)

	All	Male N=174	Female N=202
Very skilled	4.0%	5.2%	3.0%
Reasonably skilled	31.1%	29.3%	32.7%
Reasonably poor	52.9%	52.3%	53.5%
Totally hopeless	12.0%	13.2%	10.9%

Q2SQ2: Do you currently have an iron at home? (Sample size=376)

	All	Male N=174	Female N=202
Yes (to SQ3)	94.7%	90.8%	98.0%
No (to SQ5)	5.3%	9.2%	2.0%

Q2SQ3: Are you satisfied with your iron? (Sample size=356)

	All	Male N=158	Female N=198
Totally satisfied (to SQ5)	19.7%	22.2%	17.7%
Somewhat satisfied	65.7%	64.6%	66.7%
Dissatisfied	14.6%	13.3%	15.7%

Note that those who are totally satisfied skip this next question.

Q2SQ4: Why are you dissatisfied with your iron? (Sample size=286, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=123	Female N=163
Body size	28.7%	28.5%	28.8%
Design	21.3%	25.2%	18.4%
Functions	19.6%	16.3%	22.1%
Other	45.1%	46.3%	44.2%

The next question is again for all those with ironing experience.

Q2SQ5: Have you ever looked up neat ironing techniques on the internet? (Sample size=376)

	All	Male N=174	Female N=202
Yes	18.4%	19.5%	17.3%
No	81.6%	80.5%	82.7%

Q3: Do you choose to buy clothes that don’t need ironing because you feel doing the ironing is a pain? (Sample size=518)

	All	Male N=289	Female N=229
Yes	44.2%	32.5%	59.0%
No	55.8%	67.5%	41.0%