世論 What Japan Thinks

Last year (I’m just getting round to translating it now!) iShare conducted an interesting survey looking into family budget management, split into two parts, those who wish to marry and those already married. Today is the unmarried half of the survey.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of December 2010 1,140 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split into two groups; first, there were 568 unmarried but hoping to be married people; 66.9% of them were male, 18.5% in their twenties, and 81.5% in their thirties. Next, 572 were married, with 55.9% of them male, 6.1% in their twenties, and 93.9% in their thirties.

My Google AdSense earnings used to be a secret account, but then I had to dig into them to fund a couple of things, so now it contributes ever so slightly to the general family finances.

Research results

Unmarried demographic

Q1: If you were to marry, which of you would you want to work? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=380	Female N=188
Both work	83.6%	85.3%	80.3%
Just me work	9.0%	13.2%	0.5%
Just partner work	7.4%	1.6%	19.1%

Q2: Do you currently have a plan to wed? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=380	Female N=188
Have a partner I plan to marry (to SQs)	13.2%	12.4%	14.9%
Have a partner but no plans to marry (yet) (to SQs)	17.1%	14.7%	21.8%
Don’t have a partner	69.7%	72.9%	63.3%

Q2SQ1: Do you know how much your partner earns? (Sample size=172)

	All	Male N=103	Female N=69
Yes (to SQ2, SQ3)	51.7%	50.5%	53.65
No (to SQ3)	48.3%	49.5%	46.4%

Q2SQ2: Who earns more, you or your partner? (Sample size=89)

	All	Male N=52	Female N=37
Me	42.7%	57.7%	21.6%
Partner	41.6%	25.0%	64.9%
About the same	15.7%	17.3%	13.5%

Q2SQ3: Do you know how much savings your partner has? (Sample size=172)

	All	Male N=103	Female N=69
Yes	25.6%	26.2%	24.6%
No	74.4%	73.8%	75.4%

Q3: If you were to marry, do you think that you both should know how much each other earns and has saved? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=380	Female N=188
Should know both	65.5%	62.9%	70.7%
Should know salary only	20.8%	18.9%	24.5%
Should know savings only	1.6%	1.8%	1.1%
No need to know either	12.1%	16.3%	3.7%

Q4: Do you record in a family budget, etc how much you get paid every month? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=380	Female N=188
Yes	33.5%	32.1%	36.2%
No (to SQ)	66.5%	67.9%	63.8%

Q4SQ: Have you ever lost track of spending money, such as forgetting what you used money on? (Sample size=378)

	All	Male N=258	Female N=120
Often	12.2%	11.6%	13.3%
Sometimes	51.9%	50.8%	54.2%
Never	36.0%	37.6%	32.5%

Q5: Are you saving for a specific objective or to reach a specific monetary target? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=380	Female N=188
Only an objective	10.4%	8.9%	13.3%
Only a monetary target	19.5%	18.9%	20.7%
Both an objective and a monetary target	9.5%	7.1%	14.4%
Neither an objective nor a monetary target	44.2%	47.6%	37.2%
Not saving anything	16.4%	17.4%	14.4%

Q6: Do you think you can save more money after marriage than you do now? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=380	Female N=188
Yes	41.4%	41.8%	40.4%
No	58.6%	58.2%	59.6%

Q7: After marriage, do you think that a family budgeting account for both of you to use is necessary? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=380	Female N=188
Definitely (to SQ)	38.4%	35.0%	45.2%
Probably (to SQ)	38.4%	38.4%	38.3%
No	23.2%	26.6%	16.5%

Q7SQ: After marriage, would you want to have a secret personal bank account for saving your left-over pocket money? (Sample size=436)

	All	Male N=279	Female N=157
Definitely want	18.6%	14.0%	26.8%
Would want if possible	53.4%	53.0%	54.1%
Don’t want	28.0%	33.0%	19.1%

Q8: Have you ever had a fight with your partner over money? (Sample size=568)

	All	Male N=380	Female N=188
Yes	6.5%	5.3%	9.0%
No	93.5%	94.7%	91.0%