世論 What Japan Thinks

To follow up on my previous survey from O-Net and Rakuten, here is a pretty massive survey from Macromill Research looking at coming of age in 2011 – it was released on the 7th of January but didn’t appear in their feed until the 28th. This will be presented in three parts.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of December 2010 500 members of the Macromill monitor group born in 1990 or 1991 who would be coming of age in 2011 completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female.

In Q7, Q8 and Q9 it’s good to see that the new adults are interested in how the country is being run (into the ground). Let’s hope that they take some action on that, although I wouldn’t want to see activities like are happening in the Middle East as we do have an open and reasonably fair political system here. However, I did actually hear some talking heads on the TV last night looking briefly at whether such events might occur in Japan too.

Research results

Q7: Are you interested in politics? (Sample size=500)

	All	Male N=250	Female N=250
Interested	34.4%	42.8%	26.0%
Somewhat interested	41.0%	38.4%	43.6%
Not very interested	17.2%	12.8%	21.6%
Not interested at all	7.4%	6.0%	8.8%

Q8: Are you interested in elections? (Sample size=500)

	All	Male N=250	Female N=250
Interested	27.0%	33.6%	20.4%
Somewhat interested	37.2%	35.2%	39.2%
Not very interested	24.8%	21.6%	28.0%
Not interested at all	11.0%	9.6%	12.4%

Q9: Are you interested in economics? (Sample size=500)

	All	Male N=250	Female N=250
Interested	39.2%	48.8%	29.6%
Somewhat interested	42.6%	37.6%	47.6%
Not very interested	12.8%	10.0%	15.6%
Not interested at all	5.4%	3.6%	7.2%

Q10: What do you think Japan should take measures regarding? (Sample size=500, multiple free answer, top 23)

Rank		Percentage
1	Employment	75.2%
2	Economy	70.4%
3	Diplomacy issues	50.0%
4	Pension system implementation, reform	49.4%
5	Drop in the birth rate	46.4%
6	Education reform	40.0%
7	Medical system implementation, reform	38.2%
8	Regional revitalisation	35.0%
9	Taxation reform	34.8%
10	Defense, security	33.4%
11	Scientific techniques promotion	32.8%
12	Disparity problem	32.6%
13	Public finance revitalisation	30.4%
14	Environmental problems	29.8%
15	Small and medium businesses	28.2%
17	Forestry, farming and fishery	27.0%
18	Proactive contribution to international peace	26.2%
19	Deflation	24.4%
20	Expressing Japan’s charms overseas	24.2%
21	Culture, sports promotion	23.4%
21	Law and order	20.8%
22	Regional devolution	15.2%
–	Other	2.4%
–	Don’t know	3.4%

Q11: How good or bad are you at the following? (Sample size=500, multiple answer)

	Great	Good	Can’t say	Bad	Terrible
Listening to and understanding others	23.2%	44.8%	19.8%	7.8%	4.4%
Using Twitter, SNS, etc	17.4%	25.2%	26.6%	15.4%	15.4%
Debating	14.0%	26.2%	25.0%	21.2%	13.6%
Talking to people	11.6%	26.4%	26.6%	25.2%	10.2%
Making friends	11.6%	24.8%	26.2%	25.0%	12.4%
Expressing my thoughts to others	9.8%	26.2%	24.8%	27.2%	12.0%
Standing out	8.8%	14.2%	27.8%	30.8%	18.4%
Promoting myself	8.6%	14.0%	23.0%	35.4%	19.0%

Q12: Do you think it is important to be able to read the mood? (Sample size=500)

Yes	46.4%
Somewhat	43.0%
Not really	8.8%
Not at all	1.8%