世論 What Japan Thinks

I’ve never considered an outbreak of spots cute, and I can’t really imagine anyone else finding plouks attractive, but this survey from iShare into acne uncovered a large number of spot fans.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of May 2010 1,081 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.9% of the sample were female, 30.8% in their twenties, and 69.2% in their thirties, and all were unmarried.

If you’ve been in Japan for any period of time recently you surely cannot fail to have seen an ad or ten for Proactiv (no link – they’ll have to pay me for one!), all exceedingly annoying! I also saw last week that the Bashful Prince, Ryo Ishikawa, has recently broken out, so given that he is this year the king of advertisements, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets lined up to endorse Proactiv too.

Oh, and I just checked that in the US a thirty day kit is $19.95, in Japan a sixty day kit is 9,300 yen, making it about 2.5 times more expensive in Japan.

I never had acne, although I now have psorisis and have to wear short trousers on doctor’s orders!

Research results

Q1: Up to what age do you find acne in the opposite sex cute? (Sample size=1,081)

	All	Male N=520	Female N=561
Never find acne cute	41.3%	38.1%	44.2%
Up to early teens	8.5%	9.0%	8.0%
Up to late teens	25.5%	25.6%	25.5%
Up to early twenties	13.8%	13.7%	13.9%
Up to late twenties	4.2%	5.6%	2.9%
Up to thirties	1.8%	2.3%	1.2%
Even into forties is still cute	5.0%	5.8%	4.3%

Q2: What degree of visibility of acne in your partner’s back, chest, etc would draw your eyes towards them? Unattached people should assume if they had a partner. (Sample size=1,081)

	All	Male N=520	Female N=561
From right in front of me (to SQ)	14.8%	15.4%	14.3%
From conversation distance (to SQ)	44.4%	44.8%	44.0%
From a little distance away (to SQ)	17.5%	13.8%	20.9%
From far away (to SQ)	4.9%	3.7%	6.1%
Acne wouldn’t draw my eyes at all	18.4%	22.3%	14.8%

Q2SQ: Would you want your partner to do something about their acne? (Sample size=882)

	All	Male N=404	Female N=478
Definitely	26.4%	26.5%	26.4%
Probably	58.3%	56.7%	59.6%
No	15.3%	16.8%	14.0%

Q3: What degree of visibility of acne in friends of the opposite sex’s back, chest, etc would draw your eyes towards them? (Sample size=1,081)

	All	Male N=520	Female N=561
From right in front of me	13.2%	13.3%	13.2%
From conversation distance	47.5%	46.3%	48.5%
From a little distance away	15.4%	13.8%	16.8%
From far away	4.3%	3.1%	5.3%
Acne wouldn’t draw my eyes at all	19.7%	23.5%	16.2%

Q3SQ: Would you want your friends of the opposite sex to do something about their acne? (Sample size=868)

	All	Male N=398	Female N=470
Definitely	15.2%	14.8%	15.5%
Probably	63.4%	59.0%	67.0%
No	21.4%	26.1%	17.4%

Q4: Do you take more care about not breaking out in acne in summer compared to the other seasons? (Sample size=1,081)

	All	Male N=520	Female N=561
Definitely so	5.2%	4.2%	6.1%
To some degree so	23.9%	20.8%	26.7%
Not particularly	26.6%	16.7%	35.8%
Not at all	44.3%	58.3%	31.4%

Q5: Do you currently have acne? (Sample size=1,081)

	All	Male N=520	Female N=561
Yes (to SQ1)	34.8%	36.0%	33.7%
No	65.2%	64.0%	66.3%

Q5SQ1: Are you concerned about acne on your body? (Sample size=376)

	All	Male N=187	Female N=189
Very concerned (to SQ2)	29.3%	18.7%	39.7%
A little concerned (to SQ2)	51.6%	52.9%	50.3%
Not concerned	19.1%	28.3%	10.1%

Q5SQ2: Are you currently using any acne care products, regime, etc? (Sample size=304)

	All	Male N=134	Female N=170
Yes (to SQ3)	43.8%	32.1%	52.9%
No (to SQ4)	56.3%	67.9%	47.1%

Q5SQ3: Does your current acne care regime seem to be effective? (Sample size=133)

	All	Male N=43	Female N=90
Feel it works	17.3%	20.9%	15.6%
Seems to be working	24.1%	23.3%	24.4%
Don’t yet know if it’s working	46.6%	44.2%	47.8%
Don’t really expect it to work	12.0%	11.6%	12.2%

Q5SQ4: Why aren’t you currently using an acne care regime? (Sample size=171)

	All	Male N=91	Female N=80
Don’t know what it best	32.7%	35.2%	30.0%
Not bad enough to need care	21.6%	24.2%	18.8%
Too much bother	18.1%	17.6%	18.8%
Previously tried various methods but they didn’t work	14.0%	9.9%	18.8%
Confused by which care method is best	5.8%	4.4%	7.5%
Not tried anything but it probably wouldn’t be effective	2.3%	3.3%	1.3%
I’ve tried something once before but it wasn’t effective	1.8%	1.1%	2.5%
Other	3.5%	4.4%	2.5%

The next question was for the people with acne, the same sample as in Q5SQ1.

Q5SQ5: Do you have acne on your face? (Sample size=376)

	All	Male N=187	Female N=189
Yes (to SQ6)	60.6%	56.7%	64.6%
No	39.45	43.3%	35.4%

Q5SQ6: Are you concerned about acne on your face? (Sample size=228)

	All	Male N=106	Female N=122
Very concerned	40.4%	28.3%	50.8%
A little concerned	50.4%	56.6%	45.1%
Not concerned	9.2%	15.1%	4.1%