世論 What Japan Thinks

Just in time for the New Year, and perhaps as an alert to my male readers on how to avoid getting into their wife’s bad books, goo Ranking published a list of dissatisfactions with one’s husband that causes arguments to break out over New Year.

Demographics

The survey was conducted during the 31st of October and the 1st of November 2013, and 1,060 people completed a private web-based questionnaire. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample. I would guess that only married women answered the survey, although the wording of the Japanese answers suggests that unmarried women could imagine which answers might apply to them in the future or to other couples, or even their parents.

This rather unappetising-looking fish is actually rather auspicious; me failing to avoid turning up my nose at some of the traditional Japanese New Year offering is perhaps the most common reason previously for arguments!

So far this year end I don’t think I’ve committed any of these flaws, although I am currently skating on thin ice regarding my procrastination of tidying up the garden!

Ranking result

Q: Which points of dissatisfaction with your husband causes arguments to break out over New Year? (Sample size=unclear)

Rank		Score
1	Him not helping at all with the New Year cleaning	100
2	Him spending all the New Year period fiddling with his smartphone	71.9
3	Him getting in the way of the New Year cleaning by spending all his time playing video games	61.5
4	Him not helping at all with the New Year preparations	49.0
5=	Him not planning anything over the New Year and leaving it all up to me	46.9
5=	He takes me to visit his parents’ home, but says it’s too much bother to also visit mine	46.9
7=	He doesn’t want to go anywhere as it is too much bother	43.8
7=	When we visit his hometown, he goes off drinking with his old mates and leaves me with his parents	43.8
9	Even though we haven’t tidied the place up yet, he invites friends round for a booze-up	40.6
10=	His falling asleep at criticial moments and sleeping through the turn of the year	39.6
10=	His arguing over some triviality throwing a spanner in our New Year plans	39.6
12	His nagging over unfinished New Year cleaning	34.4
13=	His moaning about the New Year food I prepared	32.3
13=	His blaming me for everything that goes awry during the New Year holiday	32.3
15	Him not getting to see the program he wants to watch on New Year’s Eve	31.2
16	Him getting plastered early into the New Year and leaving it up to me to greet the in-laws	30.2
17	Although it’s a bother to visit his inlaws, him insisting we go	29.2
18=	When visiting his hometown, his siblings’ families turn up unexpectedly and I have to keep them entertained	28.1
18=	Him going over all his everyday complaints and dissatisfactions	28.1
20=	Him not eating the New Year food I prepared	26.0
20=	Him being in a bad mood all throughout our first temple, shrine visits at crowded locations	26.0
22	His scheduling for returning to his hometown did not allow for the New Year rush, so we spent time stuck in traffic jams, etc	25.0
23=	His moaning about New Year lucky bags being a waste of money	21.9
23=	His being stuck at work over the New Year period	21.9
25	Him going to bed early on New Year’s Eve, leaving me alone to see in the New Year	20.8