世論 What Japan Thinks

Bah humbug! To get you into the Christmas spirit, or to give you something to grumble about this festive season, according to a survey from iShare into Santa Claus many (far too many!) Japanese teach their kids about Santa.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 8th of December 2009 541 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.6% of the sample were male, 31.6% in their twenties, 31.4% in their thirties, and 37.0% in their forties.

Regarding Q3SQ1, I think I became aware due to a combination of playground talk and discovering Santa’s present stash hidden in a cupboard. I wouldn’t want to teach my kids about Santa and would probably try to combine the event with the existing Japanese tradition of Otoshi-dama, presents of cash at the New Year. I’m not sure about Q3SQ2 – do Japanese parents regularly dress up to hand out the gifts to kids? My parents always sneaked in when we were asleep, and I always imagined that was standard behaviour.

I’ll be out myself for an evening on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day after work, but we’ll be trying to avoid the Christmas menus! My wife’s off to the dentist, in fact, this Christmas Day!

Research results

Q1: Do you like fantasy films, novels, etc? (Sample size=541)

	All	Male N=317	Female N=224
Love them	28.8%	22.4%	37.9%
Like them	42.9%	42.9%	42.9%
Dislike them	17.0%	20.5%	12.1%
Hate them	11.3%	14.2%	7.1%

Q2: Did you get Christmas presents when you were a child? (Sample size=541)

	All	Male N=317	Female N=224
Always	45.7%	42.3%	50.4%
Usually	29.4%	31.9%	25.9%
Rarely	17.4%	16.7%	18.3%
Never	7.6%	9.1%	5.4%

Q3: Did you believe in Santa Claus when you were a child, even just a little? (Sample size=541)

	All	Male N=317	Female N=224
Still believe in him	3.7%	3.5%	4.0%
Believed in him (to SQs)	53.2%	52.7%	54.0%
Was taught about him but didn’t believe	19.2%	20.8%	17.0%
Was not taught about him	23.8%	23.0%	25.0%

Fantasy lovers were slightly more likely to have believed in him, but over twice as many fantasy haters were never taught about him!

Q3SQ1: How did you come to learn that Santa did not exist? (Sample size=288)

	All	Male N=167	Female N=121
I became aware of certain inconsistencies	23.6%	22.8%	24.8%
Friends told me he didn’t exist	15.3%	21.6%	6.6%
My parents told me	8.7%	10.2%	6.6%
I saw who really was Santa Claus	6.9%	6.6%	7.4%
My brother, sister told me	4.5%	4.8%	4.1%
Other	5.2%	3.6%	7.4%
Don’t remember	35.8%	30.5%	43.0%

Q3SQ2: Who was your Santa? (Sample size=288)

	All	Male N=167	Female N=121
Parents	83.0%	80.2%	86.8%
Grandparents	1.7%	2.4%	0.8%
Person from the shop where the presents were bought	1.0%	0.5%	1.7%
Relatives	0.3%	0.0%	0.8%
Other	1.7%	1.2%	2.5%
Didn’t know who	4.5%	7.2%	0.8%
Don’t remember	7.6%	8.4%	6.6%

Q4: Do you want your children to believe in Santa Claus? (Sample size=541)

	All	Male N=317	Female N=224
Want them to	35.5%	35.3%	35.7%
Perhaps want them to	41.4%	38.5%	45.5%
Perhaps don’t want them to	10.9%	11.4%	10.3%
Don’t want them to	12.2%	14.8%	8.5%

The more people liked fantasy the more likely they were to want their children to believe in Santa.