世論 What Japan Thinks

Since the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdown, one of the problems occuring has been the worries about radioactive particles in the tap water (I’d argue that the worries exceed the actual danger), so it was interesting to see this survey from iShare into drinking water for infants.

Demographics

On the 13th of June 2011 576 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 63.9% of the sample were female, 11.8% in their twenties, 80.6% in their thirties, and 7.6% in their forties. All of the sample lived in Tokyo prefecture and had bought mineral water for infants.

For Q2, people were asked why they had stocked up on water since the earthquake, some of the more common answers were that they wanted to have a supply if the tap water became contaminated, they don’t want their children to drink tap water, they stocked up just in case, and domestic water is safer than imported brands. That final option does seem a bit odd to me.

Research results

Q1: Before the earthquake, did you have mineral water stocked up? (Sample size=576)

	All	Male N=208	Female N=368
Yes, domestic water	45.7%	42.8%	47.3%
Yes, imported water	6.1%	8.7%	5.6%
No	48.3%	48.6%	48.1%

Q2: Since the earthquake, have you stocked up mineral water? (Sample size=576)

	All	Male N=208	Female N=368
Yes, domestic water	71.0%	64.4%	74.7%
Yes, imported water	7.3%	8.7%	6.5%
No	21.7%	26.9%	18.8%

Q3: Does your infant, child go to nursery school, creche, etc? (Sample size=576)

	All	Male N=208	Female N=368
Yes (to SQ)	62.5%	68.8%	59.0%
No	37.5%	31.3%	41.0%

Q3SQ: Does the nursery school, creche, etc your infant, child goes to have a stock of mineral water? (Sample size=360)

	All	Male N=143	Female N=217
Yes, since before the earthquake	20.3%	16.8%	22.6%
Yes, since after the earthquake	9.4%	9.1%	9.7%
No	13.9%	7.7%	18.0%
Don’t know	56.4%	66.4%	49.8%

Q4: Since the earthquake, have you changed the drinking water for your infant, child? (Sample size=576)

	All	Male N=208	Female N=368
Yes (to SQ)	45.7%	39.9%	48.9%
No	54.3%	60.1%	51.1%

Q4SQ: Since the earthquake, how have you changed the drinking water for your infant, child? (Sample size=263)

	All	Male N=83	Female N=180
From tap water to mineral water	93.9%	90.4%	95.6%
From mineral water to tap water	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Other	6.1%	9.6%	4.4%

Q5: Since the earthquake, have you changed the water used when preparing food for your infant, child? (Sample size=576)

	All	Male N=208	Female N=368
Yes (to SQ)	39.9%	34.1%	43.2%
No	60.1%	65.9%	56.8%

Q5SQ: Since the earthquake, how have you changed the water used when preparing food for your infant, child? (Sample size=230)

	All	Male N=71	Female N=159
From tap water to mineral water	94.3%	93.0%	95.0%
From mineral water to tap water	1.3%	1.4%	1.3%
Other	4.3%	5.6%	3.8%