世論 What Japan Thinks

According to recent guidance from the World Health Organisation, they would like member states to limit alcohol promotions, so in Japan the all-too-common nomihodai – all you can drink may very well be in their sights. To find out what the average Japanese person thought of this, iShare conducted a survey into the subject of banning them.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 15th of July 2010 441 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.3% of the sample were male, 29.0% in their twenties, 32.9% in their thirties, and 38.1% in their forties.

The usual nomihodai is when you go out for a course meal as a group. An average work outing will be between 2,000 and 5,000 yen for food only, then an all you can drink on top of 1,000 to 2,000 yen. The menu will be quite varied, soft drinks, one or two types of beer, various fruity chu-hai alcopops and other cocktails, a number of types of sake, and whisky, usually with a two-hour limit to match the food. I’ve never seen hot tea or coffee though, now I think about it.

I don’t think many people really abuse it, although Japan has got more of a drinking problem than it wishes to admit to, I think. I’d target effort more towards the cheap gut-rot spirits and the even cheaper supermarket own-brand alcopops that are about five times cheaper per unit than the mainstream beer brands and under the 40p per unit minimum price that the Scottish government is probably going to recommend.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever had an alcohol-based nomihodai in a restaurant, pub, etc? (Sample size=441)

	All	Male N=257	Female N=184
Yes (to SQs)	57.6%	63.8%	48.9%
No	42.4%	36.2%	51.1%

Q1SQ1: Do you have more work-based or private-based nomihodai? (Sample size=254)

	All	Male N=164	Female N=90
Work-based	55.1%	59.8%	46.7%
Private-based	27.6%	22.0%	37.8%
Both about the same	17.3%	18.3%	15.6%

Q1SQ2: What is the main reason why you do a nomihodai? (Sample size=254)

	All	Male N=164	Female N=90
To keep the bill down	53.5%	54.3%	52.2%
Can drink lots of different drinks	19.3%	17.1%	23.3%
Can drink lots	15.7%	16.5%	14.4%
Other	11.4%	12.2%	10.0%

Q2: What do you think about all restaurants in Japan being limited or banned from having alcohol-based nomihodai? (Sample size=441)

	All	Male N=257	Female N=184
Very much agree	10.7%	9.7%	12.0%
Somewhat agree	25.2%	22.2%	29.3%
Somewhat disagree	39.7%	38.9%	40.8%
Very much disagree	24.5%	29.2%	17.9%

Perhaps not surprisingly, those who had never been on a booze nomihodai were more keen on banning than those who had.