世論 What Japan Thinks

‘Tis the season where colleagues go out drinking to a 忘年会, bonenkai, the forget the year party, and at these times usually the most junior person in the office has the responsibility of organising the booze-up. So, goo Ranking decided to look at what failures and what trouble befell organisers.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of October 2009 1,162 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 62.9% of the sample were female, 10.5% in their teens, 20.7% in their twenties, 30.8% in their thirties, 21.9% in their forties, 9.0% in their fifties, and 7.0% aged sixty or older.

Just in case you’re not familiar with these parties, they are basically compulsory, organised at a local low-end eating place with a two-hour plan of party trays at the table with free drink. The usual budget is 4,000 to 5,000 yen.

I cannot remember any particular failure from the organisers of parties I’ve attended, although there’s the usual trouble of no-one gathering at the required time and stragglers coming in halfway through.

Ranking results

Q1: What failures have you had with a new guy as the bonenkai organiser? (Sample size=1,162)

Rank		Score
1	Number, volume of dishes was few	100
2	Food was bland	96.0
3	Short time limit	89.5
4	Poor atmosphere in the shop	85.0
5	Far from the office	78.2
6	Far from the station, otherwise bad location	77.1
7	Slow to bring out the food	73.1
8	Surly shop staff	69.4
9	Poor shop layout	62.3
10	Dirty toilets	56.7
11	No all-you-can-drink option	54.1
12	Cannot adjust attendee count	52.7
13	Smoking not segregated	49.0
14	No choice of alcohol	46.2
15	Not private room	42.2
16	No special party plan course	38.2
17	Nowhere to hang coats	30.6
18	No call button at table	26.1
19	Not tatami room	23.2
20	No dessert to finish off	13.9

Q2: What trouble do you have as the bonenkai organiser? (Sample size=1,162)

Rank		Score
1	Choosing, dealing with the shop	100
2	Not being able to fix attendee numbers	88.4
3	Fitting in with the boss’s schedule	74.5
4	Gathering together money	73.0
5	Deciding how to split the bill	72.3
6	People complaining about the taste, volume of food	71.1
7=	Dealing with drunks	68.6
7=	Being the MC	68.6
9	Pouring drinks for the boss	68.2
10	Exchanging mail when deciding on the day, other details	66.0
11	People not turning up at the required time	63.5
12	Organising the after-party	58.8
13	Dealing with special requests for food or shop	58.2
14	Thinking about the program of events	57.2
15	Party not finishing at the scheduled time	51.9
16	Dealing with spills	50.3
17	Deciding the seating arrangements	48.1
18	Arranging the entertainment	43.7
19	Leading everyone to the shop	35.5
20	Never-ending welcome speeches	34.6