世論 What Japan Thinks

I’m sure we’ve all done something embarrassing we’d wish to forget, which was the premise under which this question was asked by goo Ranking, with separate answers for both women and men.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of March 2010 1,128 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.5% of the sample were female, 15.1% in their teens, 16.9% in their twenties, 28.8% in their thirties, 21.1% in their forties, 9.4% in their fifties, and 8.7% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

For number 8 for the ladies, rather than (or along with) using a deodorant, many Japanese women also use sweat-absorbing underarm pads.

I suppose since this is averaging out over a whole population, disappointingly most of the incidents here seem no more than minor inconveniences.

And talking of entry number one, my first virally-successful post on WJT was this one.

Ranking result

Q: What embarrassing incident would you like to forget? (Sample size=570, female)

Rank		Score
1	Audible fart where everyone could here	100
2	Audible stomach rumble where everyone could here	72.0
3	Forgot to close a zip	61.6
4	A hole in my socks	53.8
5	Slipping and falling on a rainy day	49.1
6	A ladder in my tights	46.5
7	Humming vigourously where I thought no-one was around	42.2
8	My bra pad, armpit pad slipped	37.3
9	Too short fringe (bangs)	36.1
10	I stood in front of a mirror and gave my best smile	35.3
11=	My hair got all damp and unkempt	34.4
11=	I wore a tight shirt and all my excess flab got highlighted	34.4
13	Mascara ran and I looked like a panda	34.1
14	My heel got stuck in a grating	28.9
15	Fighting against tiredness my eyes glazed over	23.7
16	Overslept and had to go out with no makeup	23.1
17	Broke a heel	22.8
18	My hair fell into my soup	22.5
19	Took off a hat and my hair was all over the place	19.1
20	Tried to pay by card, but I’d exceeded my limit	15.3

Q: What embarrassing incident would you like to forget? (Sample size=558, male)

Rank		Score
1	Audible fart where everyone could here	100
2	A hole in my socks	87.3
3	Humming vigourously where I thought no-one was around	80.9
4	Audible stomach rumble where everyone could here	76.4
5	Forgot to close a zip	75.5
6	Slipping and falling on a rainy day	56.4
7	Wore a mismatched pair of socks	42.7
8	I stood in front of a mirror and gave my best smile	42.3
9	Forgot to put money in my wallet so she had to pay	35.5
10	Forgot to shave	35.0
11=	My hair got all damp and unkempt	34.1
11=	Took off a hat and my hair was all over the place	34.1
13	My parents called me with “-chan” attached	30.9
14	Too short fringe (bangs)	30.5
15	Forgot to iron so my shirt was full of creases	26.4
16	Tried to pay by card, but I’d exceeded my limit	25.9
17	A woman called me on the phone and I answered with an ingratiating voice	22.7
18=	Fighting against tiredness my eyes glazed over	20.0
18=	Got my hair perfect but it got ruffled in the wind	20.0
20	I wore a tight shirt and all my excess flab got highlighted	18.2