世論 What Japan Thinks

One of the topics of conversation in Japan these days is the beard ban enacted by a local council. To find out what people think of this, iShare conducted a survey into beards.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 4th of June 2010 423 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.8% of the sample were male,・0.7% in their twenties, 31.9% in their thirties, and 37.4% in their forties.

The reason for enacting the ban was because some taxpayer customer got upset at seeing a half-shaven face one morning; rather than a sensible ruling on not coming in to work without shaving, the council decided all facial hair must go. There was quite an entertaining article in the Japan Times looking at this issue.

I think a beard can look good, but chin beards or half-hearted moustache are not, although I’d never dream of complaining about one. However stubble that looks like one’s just got out of bed has to go!

Research results

Q1: Do you think that well-kept facial hair looks good on a man? (Sample size=423)

	All	Male N=232	Female N=191
Yes, very good	14.2%	13.4%	15.2%
Yes, quite good	42.1%	40.5%	44.0%
No, not good	43.7%	46.1%	40.8%

Q2: Do you think that stubble looks good on a man? (Sample size=423)

	All	Male N=232	Female N=191
Yes, very good	1.4%	1.7%	1.0%
Yes, quite good	23.6%	20.3%	27.7%
No, not good	74.9%	78.0%	71.2%

Q3: The city of Isesaki in Gunma recently banned male staff from growing facial hair as they had had complaints from local residents about it. What do you think about public servants growing facial hair? (Sample size=423)

	All	Male N=232	Female N=191
OK to have them	25.5%	27.6%	23.0%
Perhaps OK to have them	18.2%	16.8%	19.9%
Perhaps not OK to have them	24.1%	19.4%	29.8%
Not OK to have them	32.2%	36.2%	27.2%

Three-quarters of the beard lovers from Q1 supported council beards to some degree, and even 28.1% of the beard haters were in favour of them.