世論 What Japan Thinks

With Washoku, Japanese traditional home cooking, being awarded UNESCO status as an intangible cultural heritage, this recent survey from Kikkoman, a soy sauce maker, into awareness of Washoku provides some useful background data.

Demographics

Over the 27th and 28th of November 2013 830 housewives between the ages of 20 and 69 completed a private internet-based questionnaire. There is no information on how the sample was gathered, but the results were weighted according to the actual demographics of Japan.

As a coincidence, I had this Washoku meal tonight while out:

I’m not sure if the tofu-burger in the middle counts, but the surrounding dishes are certainly Washoku; anti-clockwise from the 5 grain rice we have pickles (yuk, passed them to my wife), seaweed (wakame) and fried tofu miso soup, purple sweet potato salad, konnyaku (double yuk!), hiyakko cold tofu, salad, and gobo (burdock root). Very nice it was too – my review should appear here soon.

Research results

Q1: What are the essential seasonings for Washoku? (Sample size=830, multiple answer)

Rank		Percentage
1	Soy Sauce	98.4%
2	Dashi	88.3%
3	Sugar	86.0%
4	Mirin	84.9%
5	Miso	84.3%
6	Sake	83.2%
7	Salt	71.7%
8	Vinegar	60.4%
9	Mentsuyu	47.0%
10	Ponzu	43.2%

Q2: Which Washoku dishes do you often prepare at home, excluding rice and miso soup? (Sample size=830, multiple answer)

Rank		Percentage
1	Grilled fish	59.8%
2	Meat and potatoes	53.7%
3	Pork fried in soy sauce	51.9%
4	Boiled pumpkin	50.6%
5	Udon noodles	49.5%
6	Boiled daikon radish	49.2%
7	Pork soup	48.5%
8	Fried egg, rolled omelette (dashi maki)	47.2%
9	Oden	45.1%
10	Stir-fried vegetables	44.5%
11	Kinpira gobo	44.4%
12	Boiled greens	42.6%
13	Traditional stew (yose nabe, chanko nabe)	42.4%
14	Rice cooked along with vegetables, etc	41.7%
15	Cold tofu	39.7%
16	Boiled hijiki seaweed	36.2%
17	Boiled dried strips of radish	33.8%
18	Boiled fish	33.1%
19	Chicken stew (chikuzenni)	32.8%
20	Chicken nuggets	32.0%

Q3: Which of the following statements about kinds of cuisine apply to you and your family? (Sample size=830)

	Japanese	Western	Chinese	Ethnic	Other	None in particualr
I usually often cook at home	91.6%	72.1%	52.1%	5.2%	1.1%	1.9%
I want to feed to my family	92.5%	43.4%	33.1%	6.4%	1.0%	3.1%
I want to pass on to the next generation	85.4%	21.0%	13.2%	1.8%	0.3%	12.9%
I want to eat more in the future	64.0%	12.6%	10.3%	7.3%	0.6%	25.8%

Q4: Which of the following kinds of cuisine do your family members like? (Sample size=varied)

	Japanese	Western	Chinese	Ethnic	Other	None in particualr
Elementary school children	52.5%	89.0%	39.8%	1.7%	0.0%	0.8%
Middle school children	58.0%	92.0%	60.0%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%
High school children	68.0%	92.0%	68.0%	2.0%	2.0%	2.0%
All ages	70.5%	71.2%	46.1%	6.2%	1.0%	2.1%

Q5: What are the good things about Washoku? (Sample size=830, multiple answer)

Rank		Percentage
1	Can eat lots of vegetables	77.0%
2	Good nutritional balance	76.0%
3	Healthy	65.2%
4	In tune with the seasons	57.3%
5	Low calorie	50.0%
6	Can eat lots of fish	49.1%
7	Taste I’m used to	45.3%
8	Taste all the family can eat	44.2%
9	Don’t get bored with it	42.1%
10	Can use seasoning I have at home	41.9%
11	Can eat various ingredients at a single sitting	38.3%
12	Can enjoy the taste of the ingredients	37.0%
13	Japanese-like flavour	34.7%
14	Has food to match occasions	31.3%
15	Is food education for the children	30.2%
16	Each family has their own flavour	28.2%
17	Colourful	25.7%
18	A taste of home	21.5%
19	Trains a finer palate	18.4%
20	Can keep (ie, cook in bulk)	16.2%

Q6: What are the bad things about Washoku? (Sample size=830, multiple answer)

Rank		Percentage
1	Bland	32.9%
2	Long preparation time	26.6%
3	Long cooking time	24.6%
4	A bother to prepare dashi stock	21.8%
5	Needs lots of ingredients	20.6%
6	Children don’t like it	19.0%
7	Not flashy, rich	18.9%
8	Need to use lots of crockery	18.1%
9	No sense of volume	17.5%
10	High proportion of salt	17.2%
11	Difficult to add flavour	17.2%
12	Nothing in particular	16.7%
13	Difficult to plan meals	15.4%
14	Cannot keep the flavour consistent	12.4%
15	Dull colours	8.7%
16	There’s no main dish	8.1%
17	Preparation is difficult	7.8%
18	Takes time to tidy up afterwards	7.2%
19	Got bored of the taste	5.0%
20	Gets boring	4.5%

Q7: Which of these points regarding Washoku apply to your home cooking? (Sample size=830)

	Yes	Mostly	Can’t say	Not really	No
I use in-season vegetables effectively	14.0%	47.1%	28.8%	8.6%	1.6%
I make a balanced meal centred around rice	15.1%	57.4%	21.5%	4.1%	1.9%
I place importance on the arrangement of the food	7.7%	28.6%	37.2%	23.4%	3.1%
I serve dishes in tune with events throughout the year	6.9%	32.8%	38.2%	18.1%	4.0%

Q8: Which of these points regarding Washoku apply to how you would like your home cooking to be in the future? (Sample size=830)

	Yes	Mostly	Can’t say	Not really	No
I will use in-season vegetables effectively	50.8%	41.2%	7.4%	0.0%	0.5%
I will make a balanced meal centred around rice	47.6%	42.4%	8.5%	0.9%	0.6%
I will place importance on the arrangement of the food	34.7%	48.9%	14.8%	0.9%	0.6%
I will serve dishes in tune with events throughout the year	33.7%	45.4%	17.4%	2.5%	1.0%