世論 What Japan Thinks

An interesting recent ranking survey from goo Ranking looked at the phenomenon of himono-onna, or woman who while young has abandoned love, to quote the dictionary.

Demographics

Over the 23rd and 24th of August 2010 1,127 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.3% of the sample were female, 11.7% in their teens, 16.5% in their twenties, 29.0% in their thirties, 23.2% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 8.7% 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.

The picture above is from a recent television drama, Hotaru no Hikari, where the lead character is the said dried-up woman type. The Japanese text says “A dried-up woman is someone who eats straight out of the pan.”

Ranking result

Q: What are the identifying characteristics of a dried-up woman? (Sample size=1,127)

Rank		Score
1	She doesn’t bother with a bra if she’s just popping out somewhere	100
2	She wears a sweatshirt and sweatpants instead of pyjamas	90.8
3	Even when she gets dresses-up her clothes are all wrinkled	76.5
4	Her make-up is a mess	64.3
5	Her kitchen shows no signs of having been used for cooking	60.3
6	She eats food standing up in the kitchen	53.3
7	Her nail polish is always half falling off	50.4
8	She just cannot find what she wants in her handbag	48.9
9	She has a stock of booze at home	46.3
10	Function over form is key for choosing clothes	45.6
11	Her wallet is full of dust	44.1
12	Her wallet is full of receipts	42.6
13	Her computer desktop is all cluttered	41.2
14	She’s got a dirty laugh	40.8
15	Her mobile phone’s all battered from being dropped	38.6
16	She’s slow to reply to email, and only writes short messages	38.2
17	80% of her conversations are about work or hobbies	34.2
18	She always starts off drinking parties with draft beer	33.1
19	Her laugh is hearty	32.4
20	She loves travelling alone	27.2