世論 What Japan Thinks

With a longer and hotter summer than usual in Japan, tempers inevitably fray, so goo Ranking took a look at what tends to be the cause of lovers’ tiffs in summer, for both men and women. However, looking at the answers there seems to be no pattern to which side starts the argument.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of July 2010 1,159 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 63.4% of the sample were female, 12.4% in their teens, 21.1% in their twenties, 28.3% in their thirties, 23.6% in their forties, 8.2% in their fifties, and 6.4% 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.

What most irritates me in summer (although it hasn’t started an argument, yet…) is my wife’s constant utterances of “it’s hot!” roughly every two minutes, even when inside air-conditioned facilities. Her cooler settings at bed time are also far too low, but I just snuggle up a bit more…

Ranking result

Q: What tends to be the cause of arguments with your partner during the summer? (Sample size=424 735, male)

Rank		Score
1	Air conditioning temperature setting at bedtime	100
2	Getting annoyed at the crowds at fireworks displays	79.6
3	Her saying “It’s hot!” too often	75.9
4	Ogling at the opposite sex at the beach, pool	64.8
5=	On a drive, whether to switch on the air conditioner or open a window	51.9
5=	Getting clingy even though it’s hot	51.9
5=	Not wanting to go out on a date together because it’s hot	51.9
8	Clothes that show too much skin	44.4
9	Eating all the ice cream in the freezer	40.7
10	Her not wanting to hold hands because it’s too hot	38.9
11	Saying that each other’s sweat smells	35.2
12	Drinking the fridge dry	33.3
13	Her swimsuit being too skimpy	29.6
14	Behaviour while watching live baseball on television	27.8
15	Her taking far too long to change into her yukata, swimsuit, etc	24.1
16=	Saying that the blisters from wearing sandals, beach sandals hurt	20.4
16=	Wandering about the house in underwear because it’s too hot	20.4
18	Her being too scared of a haunted house attraction	14.8
19=	Setting the shower, bath tub temperature too high	13.0
19=	Wearing beach sandals even though it’s not a beach date	13.0

Q: What tends to be the cause of arguments with your partner during the summer? (Sample size=735, female)

Rank		Score
1	Getting annoyed at the crowds at fireworks displays	100
2	Air conditioning temperature setting at bedtime	91.5
3	Not wanting to go out on a date together because it’s hot	88.6
4	Ogling at the opposite sex at the beach, pool	72.7
5	Eating all the ice cream in the freezer	71.0
6	Him saying “It’s hot!” too often	67.0
7	Getting clingy even though it’s hot	59.7
8	Drinking the fridge dry	47.2
9	Him not wanting to hold hands because it’s too hot	42.6
10	Clothes that show too much skin	36.9
11	Saying that each other’s sweat smells	30.7
12	On a drive, whether to switch on the air conditioner or open a window	26.1
13	Behaviour while watching live baseball on television	25.0
14=	Saying that the blisters from wearing sandals, beach sandals hurt	19.9
14=	Him making somen (cold rice noodles) every day	19.9
14=	Not coming out of the shade to avoid tanning at the beach, pool	19.9
17	Wandering about the house in underwear because it’s too hot	18.8
18	His swimsuit being too skimpy	14.2
19	Me taking far too long to change into my yukata, swimsuit, etc	13.6
20	Leaving the other person to do summer homework and going out to play	11.4