世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s an interesting survey from goo Ranking, looking at the reasons why people cannot make relationships last, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 18th of January 2012 1,048 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.6% of the sample were female, 12.3% in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 27.9% in their thirties, 25.8% in their forties, 9.5% in their fifties, and 8.9% in their sixties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

“Wearing a cat on my head” is a wonderful metaphor that I’d never heard before – it reminds me of the book “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat”, a book I read a long time ago but can heartily recommend. I’ve now looked up the phrase, and not suprisingly, I took the wrong meaning of the verb in the idiom 猫をかぶってしまう, neko wo kabutte shimau. There is an archaic meaning of “to be deceived”, so it would be the Japanese equivalent of “The cat hides his claws”, thus being hypocritical.

I’ll not give you my answers at they’d reveal more about me than I want you to know!

Ranking results

Q1: Why don’t your relationships last? (Sample size=402, male)

Rank		Score
1	Too clingy	100
2	Cool off soon after my ideals don’t match the reality	82.6
3	I press my values onto her	75.2
4	I don’t listen to her	71.1
5	I pay too much attention to trivial things	65.1
6	My character is such that I tend to get bored	64.4
7	I rate people by their negative points	62.4
8	Violent mood swings	61.1
9	No good at expressing thanks or positive feelings	55.0
10	I don’t keep in close touch	50.3
11=	I tend to rate partners based on a checklist	49.7
11=	Don’t have time to meet her	49.7
13	I’m too engrossed in my own hobbies	49.0
14	Even if I don’t like them I go out with them anyway	47.7
15	“I wear a cat on my head” – I end up playing the hypocrite	43.0
16	I don’t have any self-confidence	40.3
17	It’s more fun going out with my male friends	36.9
18	I get too devoted to her	36.2
19	I’m not interested in love	30.2
20	I’m not interested in anything but love	20.8

Q2: Why don’t your relationships last? (Sample size=646, female)

Rank		Score
1	Too clingy	100
2	Cool off soon after my ideals don’t match the reality	87.7
3	I press my values onto him	82.2
4	I pay too much attention to trivial things	76.7
5	I rate people by their negative points	68.4
6	My character is such that I tend to get bored	67.6
7	I don’t listen to him	65.2
8	“I wear a cat on my head” – I end up playing the hypocrite	62.8
9=	No good at expressing thanks or positive feelings	60.9
9=	Violent mood swings	60.9
11	Even if I don’t like them I go out with them anyway	60.5
12	I’m too engrossed in my own hobbies	56.1
13	I don’t keep in close touch	55.7
14	I get too devoted to him	53.0
15	I don’t have any self-confidence	52.2
16	Don’t have time to meet him	46.6
17	It’s more fun going out with my female friends	43.9
18	I’m not interested in anything but love	39.5
19	I’m not interested in love	37.9
20	I tend to rate partners based on a checklist	32.4