世論 What Japan Thinks

goo Ranking recently published the results of a survey looking at when over 35 years old Japanese feel changes that suggest they are no younger young, for both men and women.

Demographics

The survey was conducted between the 4th and 8th of October 2013 where 1,074 people completed a private web-based questionnaire. However, goo Ranking have recently revamped their ranking page and have dropped the link to their demographics. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Here’s someone trying to stay young at heart, I suppose:

Looking at the list, I cannot really identify with many despite being well past 35 myself. Number 5, perhaps, but then I’ve never been very active, so there is less of a deterioration. I also have felt number 14, but I think “too much bother” really means “too many jobs have an upper age limit” or “I’ll lose my place in the seniority-based promotion stakes”; the first of these is particularly a problem for women, despite laws that outlaw age discrimination, but these laws are quite often ignored.

Ranking results

Q1: When do you feel changes that suggest you are no younger young? (Sample size=over-35 years old men)

Rank		Score
1	When white hair starts seriously appearing	100
2	When I can no longer recall people’s names	93.9
3	When I drink alcohol it seems to go straight to my beer gut	82.9
4	When I start getting seriously forgetful	81.7
5	When I feel my body getting weaken when just a little exercise leaves me out of breath	79.3
6	When I no longer object to being called “old man”	76.8
7	When I see high school kids, university students	70.7
8=	When friends’ topic of conversation turns from “love” to “health”	63.4
8=	When I’m no longer as interested as I was in women	63.4
10=	Even though I diet, I just cannot lose weight	47.6
10=	When I notice that I no longer understand what’s so great about the latest fashion, music trends	47.6
12	When I think “Young people these days…!” while talking to my subordinates	43.9
13	When I pass the upper age limit for dating parties	42.7
14	When even though I’m dissatisfied at work, changing jobs is too much bother	39.0
15=	When I get sudden foot pain I start thinking more often it must be gout	36.6
15=	When I stop feeling the charms of women of the same generation	36.6
17	When my skin’s suppleness starts rapidly decreasing	35.4
18	When it gets harder to recover from a hangover	34.1
19=	When I start getting more interested in young women than I used to be	30.5
19=	When I suddenly break out in sweat, feel ill, otherwise become aware of the male menopause	30.5
21	When something happens and I tend to dismiss it with “Because I’m an old man it can’t be helped!”	29.3
22	When I talk about the past, young people haven’t a clue what I’m on about	26.8
23	When I feel young men walking down the street are radiant	24.4
24	When I get all bashful when I get called “guy”	22.0
25	When people in their twenties say “You’re at a ripe age, so please calm down”	18.3

Q2: When do you feel changes that suggest you are no younger young? (Sample size=over-35 years old women)

Rank		Score
1	When I can no longer recall people’s names	100
2	When white hair starts seriously appearing	95.1
3	When my skin’s suppleness starts rapidly decreasing	91.8
4	When I feel my body getting weaken when just a little exercise leaves me out of breath	85.2
5	Even though I diet, I just cannot lose weight	80.3
6=	When friends’ topic of conversation turns from “love” to “health”	77.0
6=	When I see high school kids, university students	77.0
8=	When I drink alcohol it all seems to go to my stomach fat	75.4
8=	When I start getting seriously forgetful	75.4
10=	When I feel young women walking down the street are radiant	62.3
10=	When I suddenly break out in sweat, feel ill, otherwise become aware of the menopause	62.3
12	When I notice that I no longer understand what’s so great about the latest fashion, music trends	60.7
13	When I no longer object to being called “old woman”	59.0
14	When I think “Young people these days…!” while talking to my subordinates	46.7
15	When I get all bashful when I get called “girl”	45.9
16	When something happens and I dismiss it with “Because I’m an old woman it can’t be helped!”	44.3
17	When I’m no longer as interested as I was in men	40.2
18	When I start to more frequently react when hearing “granny” and “old woman”	35.2
19=	When I pass the upper age limit for dating parties	29.5
19=	When I realise that guys only ever ogle at young women	29.5
21=	When even though I’m dissatisfied at work, changing jobs is too much bother	25.4
21=	When I stop feeling the charms of men of the same generation	25.4
23	When it gets harder to recover from a hangover	21.3
24	When my listening becomes limited to enka and oldies	19.7
25	When I talk about the past, young people haven’t a clue what I’m on about	16.4