世論 What Japan Thinks

DIMSDRIVE Research recently reported on a survey from last August into drinking alcohol.

Demographics

Between the 19th of August and 2nd of September 2010 7.069 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 9.9% in their twenties, 29.8% in their thirties, 32.5% in their forties, 18.1% in their fifties, and 9.7% aged sixty or older.

Normally, I fall into the once every two or three month category, although when I have a business trip overseas I may occassionally have an extra shandy or two; I’m most likely off to Munich next month, so I might force myself to sample a litre or five of the local brew…

Here’s Tokyo Metro telling you to get beered up at home, not in the platform:

Research results

Q1: How often do you normally drink alcohol? (Sample size=7,060)

	All	Male N=3,788	Female N=3,281
Almost every day (to Q2 to Q9)	21.8%	29.6%	13.1%
Four or five days a week (to Q2 to Q9)	9.9%	12.1%	7.4%
Two or three days a week (to Q2 to Q9)	14.6%	15.1%	14.0%
Once a week (to Q2 to Q9)	11.4%	11.1%	11.7%
One day every two or three weeks (to Q2 to Q9)	4.9%	4.5%	5.2%
One day a month (to Q2 to Q9)	6.5%	5.1%	8.1%
One day every two or three months (to Q2 to Q9)	3.5%	2.8%	4.4%
Less than that (to Q2 to Q9)	4.9%	3.4%	6.6%
Can drink but don’t (to Q10)	9.9%	6.8%	13.4%
Can’t drink (to end of survey)	12.6%	9.5%	16.1%

Daily drinking increased by age for men, with just 12.7% in their twenties drinking every day versus 39.6% of those over 60. For women, apart from 5.3% in their twenties, the rest of the age groups were between 13% to 16%.

By employment, 34.6% of standard full-time employees found themselves with a drink in their hand every day, whereas 40.2% of those retired did. Surprisingly for me, students drunk the least, with just 4.3% down the student union every night, and just 37.6% managing one day a week. The biggest tee-totallers were homemakers (34.8%) and the unemployed (32.7%). Only 9.0% of the full-time employees were on the wagon.

Q2: What kinds of alcohol do you like? (Sample size=5,484, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=3,171	Female N=2,313
Beer	70.1%	77.5%	59.8%
Beer-like drinks (happoshu, third-sector, etc)	52.3%	55.1%	48.5%
Chu-hai, sour, cocktail	50.2%	40.1%	64.1%
Wine	38.9%	36.6%	42.0%
Shochu (Japanese spirits)	36.8%	48.1%	21.3%
Plum wine, apricot wine, fruit wine	33.0%	22.4%	47.6%
Sake	28.3%	34.2%	20.2%
Whisky	21.2%	28.9%	10.6%
Sparkling wine	17.8%	13.8%	23.2%
Liquer (gin, rum, etc)	11.7%	10.2%	13.7%
Champagne	11.6%	9.3%	14.7%
Non-alcohol beer	10.3%	9.5%	11.4%
Brandy	7.4%	9.5%	4.6%
Awamori	6.6%	8.5%	4.0%
Makkori (Korean wine)	5.7%	5.6%	6.0%
Vodka	5.7%	6.1%	5.0%
Other	0.7%	0.9%	0.6%

Q3: What kind of alcohol do you usually start off with? (Sample size=5,484, multiple answer, top seven answers)

	All	Male N=3,171	Female N=2,313
Beer	53.3%	61.7%	41.8%
Beer-like drinks (happoshu, third-sector, etc)	19.8%	20.8%	18.4%
Chu-hai, sour, cocktail	13.3%	5.3%	24.3%
Wine	3.6%	1.4%	6.8%
Shochu (Japanese spirits)	3.1%	4.3%	1.5%
Plum wine, apricot wine, fruit wine	2.2%	1.7%	2.9%
Sake	1.4%	1.7%	1.0%

Q4: How do you choose what kind of alcohol to drink? (Sample size=5,484, multiple answer)

My usual order	43.3%
Depends on how I feel	37.0%
Price	32.2%
To go with the food	26.7%
Atmosphere	23.8%
To go with my drinking buddies	20.8%
Weather, season	8.5%
Shop recommendation	7.7%
Other	0.7%
Nothing in particular	7.1%

Men were slightly more likely to have the usual than women, but younger women in particular were much more likely to choose based on their mood. Price was a roughly equal factor for both men and women, with younger people more likely to choose based on it.

Q5: How do you think you can handle your drink? (Sample size=5,484)

	All	Male N=3,171	Female N=2,313
Very well	7.4%	8.5%	5.9%
Reasonably well	30.6%	30.0%	31.5%
Can’t really say	29.3%	30.8%	27.2%
A little poorly	19.5%	19.7%	19.2%
Very poorly	13.2%	11.0%	16.2%

They had a breakdown by regions of Japan, but there wasn’t really any stand-out figures. By age, there was only a slight trend towards older women rating themselves as unable to hold their alcohol.

Q6: Do you like to drink alcohol? (Sample size=5,484)

Love it	29.4%
Like it	43.3%
Can’t say either way	21.9%
Dislike it	4.4%
Hate it	1.0%

As with ability to hold one’s alcohol, there was little variation by region in liking of alcohol. Sadly, there was no cross-reference between liking of beer and ability to handle it.

Q7: When do you have the opportunity to drink alcohol? (Sample size=5,484, multiple answer)

End of the year party (bounenkai)	72.2%
Over the New Year	66.5%
Start of the year party (shinnenkai)	61.5%
Welcoming, farewell party	60.1%
At travel destination	59.2%
Product launch, completion party	57.5%
Births, weddings, funerals	51.8%
My own birthday	47.3%
Christmas	42.7%
Other person’s birthday	41.4%
Festival	36.7%
Watching sports, other events	29.5%
Payday	12.3%
Bonus day	10.8%
Other	9.7%

Q8: What do you take care to do when drinking alcohol? (Sample size=5,484, multiple answer)

Not drinking too much	59.6%
Drink only when eating	37.5%
Effect on the next day	37.1%
Not causing others bother	27.5%
Hangover	27.0%
Health	22.9%
Late-night snacking	19.0%
Not eating too many snacks	16.2%
Giving my liver days off	14.1%
Not mixing my drinks	9.7%

Q9: What do you do when you drink alcohol, or what do others say you do? (Sample size=5,484, multiple answer)

Have fun	62.2%
Brighten up	38.9%
Talk a lot	27.0%
Soon fall asleep	17.3%
Get giggly	16.2%
Become generous	14.9%
Want to sing	9.2%
Loosen my wallet	8.0%
Keep repeating the same things	6.4%
Get all touchy-feely	3.5%
Want to dance	2.8%
Start moaning	2.8%
Start lecturing	2.4%
Soon vomit	2.4%
Want to go home	2.2%
Get all teary	1.8%
Get angry	1.4%
Get all sad	1.3%
Start kissing everyone	1.0%
Strip	0.6%
Other	3.1%
No change at all	15.5%

The final question was for those who could drink but didn’t according to Q1.

Q10: Why don’t you drink alcohol? (Sample size=697, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=258	Female N=439
Don’t like alcohol	27.8%	36.4%	22.8%
For health reasons	20.7%	29.5%	15.5%
Costs money	20.7%	28.3%	16.2%
Has a bad effect on my body	13.1%	13.6%	12.8%
Hate the taste	8.9%	11.6%	7.3%
Get drunk too easily	8.5%	6.6%	9.6%
Doctor told me to stop	6.9%	11.2%	4.3%
Don’t have anyone to drink with	6.7%	7.4%	6.4%
Pregnant	6.2%	0.0%	9.8%
Hate pubs	5.3%	10.1%	2.5%
No fun being drunk	2.0%	1.9%	2.1%
Have had a traumatic incident	1.7%	2.3%	1.4%
Am a bad drunk	1.3%	2.7%	0.5%
Family forbid me	1.0%	1.9%	0.5%
Other	11.9%	5.0%	15.9%
No particular reason	18.5%	16.7%	19.6%