世論 What Japan Thinks

With Father’s Day on the horizon, iShare took a very detailed look at fathers at home.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of May 2010 450 male members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All were married with children, and with a salary of 3 million yen or more. 80.0% were in their forties, and 20.0% were in their fifties. Note that this is the first survey I can remember from iShare that included anyone in their fifties.

Oyaji is a slighly insulting or self-deprecating term to refer to a middle-aged man, in particular ones with a middle-aged outlook or appearance. Or smell…

It’s perhaps not surprising that over half the participants have some complaint or other about their home life. Personally, I don’t have any complaints of sufficient note to register in Q1, and any lingering feelings I might have are easily dispelled by the relief of getting away from the office!

Research results

Q1: When you return home on weekdays, which of the following do you feel? (Sample size=450, multiple answer)

	All	Forties N=360	Fifties N=90
Don’t have time to enjoy my hobbies	29.8%	32.5%	18.9%
Don’t have the time, place to be alone	21.1%	21.7%	18.9%
Can’t watch the programs I want to watch	16.7%	16.9%	15.6%
Wife, kids are noisy	13.8%	14.7%	10.0%
There’s no place for me at home	10.2%	9.7%	12.2%
The living room is always occupied	10.0%	9.2%	13.3%
I don’t communicate with family well	8.4%	7.5%	12.2%
There’s no dinner for me when I get home	2.4%	2.5%	2.2%
None of the above	47.8%	45.8%	55.6%

Q2: Do you have your own room at home? (Sample size=450)

	All	Forties N=360	Fifties N=90
Yes	43.6%	42.8%	46.7%
No	56.4%	57.2%	53.3%

For each of the complaints in Q1, there was a higher than average percentage of people without their own room. In total, those with any of the complaints from Q1 without a room of their own was 60.9%, while 51.6% those with no complaints did not have a room of their own.

Q3: Who decides the interior of your home? (Sample size=450)

	All	Forties N=360	Fifties N=90
Mainly the wife	65.1%	64.7%	66.7%
Mainly me	29.6%	29.2%	31.1%
Mainly the children	0.9%	1.1%	0.0%
Other	4.4%	5.0%	2.2%

As with Q2, the people with complaints had less say over their home’s interior.

Q4: Who do you spend most time with at home? (Sample size=450)

	All	Forties N=360	Fifties N=90
All the family	46.9%	50.3%	33.3%
Want to be by myself	29.3%	25.8%	43.3%
Wife	11.6%	10.0%	17.8%
Children	11.6%	13.1%	5.6%
Other	0.7%	0.8%	0.0%

As with Q2 and Q3, more people with complaints wanted to be by themselves, and those with none spend more time with the whole family.

Q5: How do you spend your time at home? (Sample size=450, multiple answer)

	All	Forties N=360	Fifties N=90
On the internet	76.2%	76.9%	73.3%
Watching television	54.0%	55.3%	48.9%
Watching recorded television	47.3%	50.0%	36.7%
Watching DVDs, etc	34.2%	36.4%	25.6%
Listening to CDs, etc	16.2%	15.8%	17.8%
Playing video games	13.8%	15.6%	6.7%
Other	16.0%	16.4%	14.4%

Unlike the previous questions, there were no significant behaviour trends by complaints.