世論 What Japan Thinks

Two questions, both silly, today. First up are 10,263 teenage girls from an SNS-like site Candy, asked if they’d rather have bigger boobs or skinnier legs; 86.8% went for legs, just 13.2% for breasts. The photo below is from a shrine dedicated to breasts, apparently…

Next was Research Panel’s Day Research, asking 36,625 people on the 27th of May 2013 which they disliked more; other people’s farts or other people’s burps. This was a surprisingly close 43.8% voting for (or should that be “against”?) burps, and 56.2% hating on bottom burps.

Do House – slogan: Human Networking Industry – recently released a report on the fifth of Japan’s Four Seasons, the Rainy Season, and found, not suprisingly, that it does not have many fans.

Demographics

Over the 22nd and 23rd of April 2013 1,199 members of the Moratame.net&erg; aged between 25 and 69 completed a private web-based questionnaire. No further demographic breakdown was presented.

Rainy season often causes mirth amongst foreigners as the Japanese are proud of their Four Seasons, yet rainy season is a very distinct period from June to mid-July (this year it started a bit early, and here in Osaka it might be officially declared tomorrow). However, the Japanese for rainy season, 梅雨, tsuyu does not include the word season – literally it is Plum Rain, apparently because it coincides with the plum ripening time. I do note, though, that Q1 here translates as “Do you like the Plum Rain Season?”
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I think the above is the take-away from this survey by the fast fashion retailer Uniqlo into Cool Biz and Super Cool Biz, who used this survey as an excuse to promote this year’s Super Cool Biz line of clothes.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 13th of May 2013 200 men and women in full employment living within Tokyo and aged between 20 and 59 completed an internet-based questionnaire.

I don’t really go much for Cool Biz, but I’m always relatively casual at work. I have heard other people say that wearing a vest or T-shirt under a normal shirt helps no end on sweaty Japanese summer days, so perhaps I’ll pick up a couple of Uniqlo T-shirts and give them a go.
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Research Panel recently did a Day Research quick survey on piercings; 147,357 people responded to the question.

14.7% said they had one (there was no investigation into what part of the body, but the answer includes conventional ear lobe piercing), 9.7% used to have one, 8.9% didn’t have one but were interested in getting one, and 66.7% had no interest at all.

By way of comparison, according to this data, 14% of Americans and 10% of British people have piercing in places other than their earlobes, but their figures on 83% of Americans having piercings and 72% of them being women would mean that at least 60% of Americans are female, which obviously indicates an error somewhere!

That’s the question posed by Research Panel’s Day Research, where 149,374 people of both sexes were asked if they liked stuff like this pictured below on women:

The score for both sexes combined were 35.7% liked it, 60.7% didn’t like it, and 3.6% just didn’t know what nail art was! However, when the sexes were split, just 24.9% of guys liked it versus 70.0% who didn’t, while for the women 47.8% liked it while 50.2% didn’t. One suggestion why was offered by a matchmaker, who said that it was a huge turn-off for guys as it gave the impression of someone who wasn’t interested in doing housework.

The cosmetics seller and make-up training school, naturaglacè, catchphrase “Dolce make-up by nature’s way”, recently conducted its own survey into one’s own make-up.

Demographics

Between the 26th of February and the 4th of March 2013 1,505 women completed a web-based questionnaire. Details on how the sample was gathered, or more detailed demographics was not presented.

Not being in the habit of wearing make-up, I cannot really comment too much on this poll, although I will note that from the women in Q5A, Haruka Ayase, Koyuki and Kaori Momoi have appeared together in an advert for SK-II skin care cosmetics.
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Between the 26th of April and 9th of May 2013 5,198 members of @Nifty answered a number of questions about udon, Japanese wheat-based noodles. Here are some of the highlights.

First, when asked how much they loved it, 2% said it was to die for, 32% loved it, 43% liked it, 18% had no particular preferences, just 4% didn’t really like it, a rounded 0% hated it, and no-one would die rather than eat it! I’m in the like category.

Next, regarding whether it was better hot or cold, 44% chose hot, 24% had no preference, 6% preferred it cold, 25% liked it hot in winter and cold in summer, and 1% disliked it either way.

Regarding when they liked to eat it, women had more preferences than me in almost every category; just under a half of both sexes chose at lunchtime, 27% anf 34% of women in cold weather, 24% of men and 35% when their didn’t want to spend time or effort eating anything else, and so on down. The two times that men prefered it more than women was any time (24% versus 22%) and after drinking, 7% versus 2%!

Now, an interesting question; there are two main variants of broth that udon is served with; Kanto dashi from the Tokyo region, and Kansai dashi from the Osaka area. Kansai dashi is an almost clear broth subtly flavoured with kombu seaweed, Kanto dashi is basically 90% soy sauce, or at least that’s how it tastes to me! The results of this question were split by the regions of Japan; 25% to 30% of those in East Japan prefered Kanto dashi, versus under 5% in the West. Tokai, which is the Nagoya area was in no-man’s land, with about 18% siding with Kanto. About 35% in East Japan liked both styles equally, whilst under 10% in the West did. Kyushu, however, had about 18% sitting on the fence. Interestingly, even in Kanto itself more prefered Kansai dashi (about 33%), and a few percent more in other eastern and northern areas were also so inclined. In Kansai, over 90% supported the home team, and about 80% in parts further west.

When asked what flavouring accents they liked, sliced green onions was tops with 90%, chili-based spices was second at about 66%, then bonita fish flakes at 28% or so. Yuzu, citrus peel, was just under 20% despite being my favourite.

Ahh, I’ve got all hungry now!

It’s been quite a while since the last time I translated a DIMSDRIVE survey, so I’m quite happy to present this one from them on deodorising sprays, which you should note excludes personal hygene-related products!

Demographics

Between the 9th and 15th of April 2013 7,089 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.4% of the sample were male, 0.4% in their teens, 4.4% in their twenties, 18.6% in their thirties, 30.6% in their forties, 25.7% in their fifties, and 20.3% aged sixty or older.

My wife uses a lot of them every day! When we hang our quilts out to air, we use one which is supposed to prevent pollen sticking to the covers, so I suppose that’s OK, but just about every fabric surface in the house also gets sprayed with various potions that don’t seem to do much except make the floor a little sticky! It also seems a cop-out on the housework; shall I do some detailed cleaning, or shall I just squirt something over everything that doesn’t move?
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Men’s hair, of course, in this Day Research by Research Panel into if you had to choose one which do you prefer on men; thinning hair, white hair, or long hair? 16,821 women from the Research Panel monitor group answered.

The top choice was white with 69.7%, 26.2% for long, and just 4.2% for thinning. Sadly I fall into the last category only. 46.7% of teenage girls selected long hair, dropping to 34.6% for those in their twenties, and from thirty upwards it was in the twenties range. However, even amongst teenage girls, white hair was the top preference. This photo might be one reason thinning hair is not popular…

This quicky from Anicom Animal Insurance looked at a cat’s effect on family life. This survey was released on the 29th of September 2012, which is apparently Maneki Neko (Beckoning Cat) Day. 653 cat owners answered the survey between the 12th and 17th of September 2012. This seems like a good excuse for a beckoning kitty – click on the picture to read a bit more about Beckoning Cats!

When asked if they thought their pet cats were Maneki Neko, 82.%% said yes, 4.1% no, and 13.4% couldn’t say. When asked what exactly people thought their cats brought in, 76.9% said healing power, 71.5% happy times, 56.7% laughs, 28.5% family (eh?), 23.8% careful cleaning (perhaps they thought they copied with the hoover their cat’s careful grooming?) 14.2% health, 11.8% sound sleep, 11.7% good luck, 11.3% work, 9.4% friends, 8.2% hobbies, and 7.4% financial good fortune.