世論 What Japan Thinks

The new government in Japan seems to have been conducting an awful lot of surveys recently, with the latest one from the Cabinet Office Japan being on a gender-equal society. This survey was last conducted five years ago and translated three years ago.

Demographics

5,000 adults over the age of twenty were selected at random from all over the country, and an attempt was made to conduct face-to-face interviews with them over the period of the 1st to 18th of October 2009. 3,240 people, or 64,8%, were available and agreed to take part. 53.4% of the sample were female, 9.8% in their twenties, 14.6% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 19.0% in their fifties, 22.2% in their sixties and 18.1% aged seventy or older. 48.5% were emploted, 9.9% self-employed, 3.7% in the family business, and 37.9% homemakers, studens, or retired. 74.6% were married, 0.7% were unmarried but living with their partner, 4.3% divorced, 5.7% widowed, and 14.8% unmarried. Finally, 77.6% had children.

Q10SQ is a bit of a strange set of answers to me, although perhaps it is just my intellectual thought processes that say exposure to those who don’t want to see it is not really the fault of the media on the whole. I would also put the objectification of women much higher up the ranking, but I don’t think there is the same degree of awareness in Japan as in the west.

Research results

Q7: What is your own desired balance between outside work, home life, local or personal activities (local events, study, hobbies, socialising, etc)? (Sample size=3,240)

Want to place priority on work	8.5%
Want to place priority on home life	28.7%
Want to place priority on local or personal activities	2.2%
Want to place priority on work and home life	31.2%
Want to place priority on work and local or personal activities	3.6%
Want to place priority on home life and local or personal activities	7.8%
Want to place priority on work, home life, local or personal activities	16.9%
Don’t know	1.1%

Q8: What is your own actual balance between outside work, home life, local or personal activities (local events, study, hobbies, socialising, etc)? (Sample size=3,240)

Place priority on work	25.8%
Place priority on home life	33.0%
Place priority on local or personal activities	3.7%
Place priority on work and home life	21.0%
Place priority on work and local or personal activities	3.6%
Place priority on home life and local or personal activities	6.7%
Place priority on work, home life, local or personal activities	4.6%
Don’t know	1.6%

Q9: “For child-rearing, caring, and other family burdens to be recognised as important societally, it should be rated by society as a whole” is one way of thinking; for you what form of evaluation do you think is needed for each of the following? (Sample size=3,240)

Child-rearing

Allowances, tax breaks, other financial favourable treatment	70.5%
Public recognition, other societal evaluation	4.9%
No financial or societal support is needed	13.9%
Other	5.4%
Don’t know	5.3%

Caring

Allowances, tax breaks, other financial favourable treatment	78.8%
Public recognition, other societal evaluation	6.4%
No financial or societal support is needed	6.9%
Other	3.2%
Don’t know	4.8%

Other home-related tasks

Allowances, tax breaks, other financial favourable treatment	19.7%
Public recognition, other societal evaluation	12.5%
No financial or societal support is needed	43.9%
Other	15.2%
Don’t know	8.7%

Neighborhood councils, other local activities

Allowances, tax breaks, other financial favourable treatment	12.3%
Public recognition, other societal evaluation	48.9%
No financial or societal support is needed	22.5%
Other	8.0%
Don’t know	8.2%

Q10: Do you think expression of sex or violence on television, newspapers, magazines, internet, computer games, other media is a problem? (Sample size=3,240)

Think so (to SQ)	46.4%
Think so to some degree (to SQ)	33.6%
Don’t think so to some degree	9.4%
Don’t think so	6.5%
Don’t know	4.0%

Q10SQ: What kinds of problems do you think there are with expressions of sex or violence? (Sample size=2,593, multiple answer)

Exposure of such expressions to those who don’t want it, to children	63.0%
Damage to the moral framework, ethical sense of society as a whole	59.4%
Promotion of sex crimes against children	51.1%
Over-sexual objectification of women, infringing on women’s rights	41.7%
Promotion of violence against women	30.9%
Other	0.5%
Don’t know	1.9%

Q11: What do you think is the best way to limit such expressions of sex or violence on television, newspapers, magazines, internet, computer games, other media? (Sample size=3,240, multiple answer)

Filtering services from internet service providers	46.9%
Self-regulation by media organisations	46.6%
Amendment of current laws, passing new laws	46.3%
Filtering settings on reception equipment	41.7%
Manufacturers to develop filtering techniques	37.7%
Strengthening of governmental directives, management systems	35.3%
Promotion of victim support services	22.8%
No particular limits are needed	2.9%
Other	0.5%
Don’t know	11.2%

Q12: In order to form a gender-equal society, what do you think the government should put effort into doing? (Sample size=3,240, multiple answer)

Support for re-entering the job market after quitting due to child-rearing, caring	64.3%
Support to allow even those involved in child-rearing, caring to continue to work	63.3%
Establish infant, old folk, and infirm people’s nursing facilities and services	62.7%
Conduct a review of laws and regulations	47.0%
Promote the reform of male and female working styles, such as making shorter working hours, working from home the norm	46.8%
Actively promote women to management, committee positions at local, national public bodies	41.5%
Support the promotion of women to management positions in corporations, other organisations	39.9%
Support the promotion to women of fields where there are currently few	35.9%
Offer a place for male and female lifestyle, problem, etc consultation	29.6%
Sufficient education opportunities regarding gender equality, mutual understanding and cooperation	26.6%
Produce publicity materials and pamphlets, etc regarding gender equality, mutual understanding and cooperation	22.8%
Other	0.6%
Nothing in particular	3.0%
Don’t know	3.0%