世論 What Japan Thinks

Having just recently translated surveys on health checks and fitness, let’s visit the other end of the spectrum by looking at a survey from September by MyVoice on fast food. 12,847 members of their internet community completed the private opinion poll; 54% were female, 3% in their teens, 20% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 25% in their forties, and 13% aged fifty or older.

Note that this survey was carried out whilst the importation of US beef was banned, which may very well have adversely affected Yoshinoya’s rating.

My only fast foods are the very occasional Mister Donuts and Subway, each once a year, if even that!
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goo Research recently published the results of a survey they carried out into exercise, either taking it or watching other people doing it. Demographics are not clearly expressed, but aproximately 1,000 employed people from their monitor pool completed the survey. About eigth-tenths worked full-time for public or private enterprises as either permanent or contract staff, and nearly nine-tenths were salaried employees. Freelancers and self-employed made up the remaining one and a bit tenths.

Exercise is one of these things I mean to do more of, but… There’s no shortage of clubs, but basic fees start at not much less than 10,000 yen per month or about 2,000 yen per visit, which is a bit much.

As for watching, she who owns the remote has no interest, so neither do I…
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With me on a Shinkansen up to Yokohama for the CHES (Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems ’06 Conference rather than attending a regular health check, it would be quite appropriate to look at this survey conducted at the start of last month by MyVoice into health checks. 13,126 people from their monitor pool responded, 54% female, 3% in their teens, 21% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 24% in their forties, and 13% aged fifty or older.

In Japan, I believe the law states that all companies must provide their employees with annual health checks, but the law doesn’t state how detailed they should be. In my employer’s case, every year we get our height, weight, urine, eyes and ears checked, and a chest X-ray. I personally opt out of the chest X-ray most times as it’s apparently a check for lung cancer and TB, but according to reliable internet data, there are far more effective tests for latent TB and X-rays should only be needed to confirm an outbreak, and as for lung cancer, first I don’t smoke, and second, once it’s big enough to turn up on an X-ray it’s most likely terminal. Japan also has the highest number of medical X-ray exposures per person per year and the highest rate of cancer attributed to medical X-rays, two facts which I can’t help feel are connected somehow.

My company also once every three to five years does a blood test, poo test, and a barium meal, plus additional ten-year checks, and also recently has started annual fitness tests consisting of grip strength, bike riding, sit-ups, reaction times, balancing on one leg with eyes shut (yes, really!), and recovery rate checks, which is the test I’m skiving out of today.

In addition, many local councils offer their residents various free checks at various stages of life.
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This slightly broken English in the post title is the catchphrase of not just Osaka’s, but a national promotion to persuade people to view looking after their teeth as a lifelong commitment. I’ve covered teeth in a number of other posts, but the statistical fact I learnt yesterday on a train covered in posters for said campaign was that current 80 year olds (in Osaka only? in the whole of Japan?) only have on average around four teeth left.

The reasons for this poor record are not just as revealed in the earlier surveys, a lack of regular care and maintentance by a professional, but also a large number of dentists who would often rather just yank a tooth instead of repairing it. There’s also more than a fair share of incompetent dentists, of course, but fortunately mine doesn’t fall into either category.

Over a week in the middle of July DIMSDRIVE Research look at that Japanese staple, tofu. They interviewed 4,171 members of their internet monitor group by means of a private questionnaire; 65.0% of the respondents were female, 1.7% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 33.7% in their thirties, 25.3% in their forties, 13.0% in their fifties, and 7.6% aged sixty or older.

Tofu (and soy beans in general) is just about my favourite Japanese food, and I recommend everyone to try a posh tofu restaurant at least once, even if you, like AA Gill of the Times, believe it to be no more than “congealed river scum”. Recently, I’ve not eaten it as much I usually do, although I still have some two to four days a week, it’s abura-age or Koya-dofu, not the plain block tofu.

Also, this weekend I had a wonderful tofu lunch at Seed’s Kitchen in Takarazuka (I should ask them for a discount for this free advert!). As pictured down towards the bottom of that page, it features seven different styles of tofu and rice with black soya beans for just 1200 yen.
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Following on from my earlier post regarding a survey on smoking by goo Research, I now present a translation of a related opinion poll from DIMSDRIVE Research on smoking manners. In mid-June they interviewed 8,273 people from their internet monitor group. 56.8% of the sample was female, 1.2% in their teens, 17.5% in their twenties, 36.2% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 4.3% aged sixty or over; average age was 42.2 years old for men, 36.6 years old for women. As further demographic information they also published the occupations of the sample; 2.1% were company director level, 37.3% were ordinary full-time employees, 6.3% self-employed, 11.9% in part-time or casual labour, 3.2% worked for local or national government, 2.4% were freelancers, 24.5% housewives, 3.6% students, 1.0% retired, 4.8% unemployed, and 2.9% in others jobs.

This part of the survey focuses on manners; one of the many things that annoys me is how Japan Tobacco get around the ban on advertising smoking products by instead having a smoking manners campaign instead; be sure to check out the full gallery there! I think any resident of Japan would tell you that it seems that far less than the percentages mentioned in Q8, for instance, actually carry out these points of etiquette. I’m also very suprised by throwing away cigarette ends being seen as bad manners by many more non-smokers than lighting up in non-smoking areas!
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Following on from my earlier post regarding a survey on smoking by goo Research, I now present a translation of a related opinion poll from DIMSDRIVE Research on smoking manners. In mid-June they interviewed 8,273 people from their internet monitor group. 56.8% of the sample was female, 1.2% in their teens, 17.5% in their twenties, 36.2% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 4.3% aged sixty or over; average age was 42.2 years old for men, 36.6 years old for women. As further demographic information they also published the occupations of the sample; 2.1% were company director level, 37.3% were ordinary full-time employees, 6.3% self-employed, 11.9% in part-time or casual labour, 3.2% worked for local or national government, 2.4% were freelancers, 24.5% housewives, 3.6% students, 1.0% retired, 4.8% unemployed, and 2.9% in others jobs.

One important thing to note when reading these figures is that men tend to be much more likely (almost twice as likely) to smoke, and tend to smoke more, so be wary of quoting these figures directly. If you are interested in that breakdown, either refer to the original survey or ask me and I’ll do a translation of every last statistic.
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goo Research recently published the results of a survey of their internet monitor pool on the subject of tobacco. They interviewed 1,076 people by means of a private internet-based questionnaire towards the end of July, but the survey report does not include any demographic breakdown.

Note that although there is no age, occupation or sex breakdown, given goo Research’s monitor pool there should be slightly less than average manual workers, the sort of demographic that has a higher smoking rate, I believe, so the 23.1% of regular smokers should not be extrapolated to the general population. Similarly, most goo surveys have about 55% to 60% women respondents, and women are significantly less likely to smoke (about 15% versus 50%) than men.

One strange thing about cigarettes in Japan is the uniformity of price; prices for a particular brand are the same across all vendors, from cigarette machines to big supermarkets via corner shops. In addition, the price for a case of 10 boxes is not discounted at all, except for them occasionally throwing in a small gift like a lighter or similar trinket. Beer is similar, although you do get discounts for six-packs, but soft drinks often vary in price as one might expect. Is there some law on price-setting?
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As another part of their 91st Ranking Research, DIMSDRIVE Research looked at what people thought was the cause of their bad eyesight. We’ve seen previously how most Japanese wear glasses, so let’s have a look at why they do. No, that reason was not included in the answers! They interviewed 4,347 people (perhaps all thought their eyesight was bad) from their internet monitor group over a period of a week in the middle of August.

The main reason my eyes are wonky, I suspect, is as a child I spent a lot of time staring at the sun.
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The answer to headline is “not very much, quite frankly. And just 17 times a year.”

The Japanese division of the drug company Bayer recently published the results of a survey into Japanese married couples’ bedroom life. They interviewed 103 men and 103 women, all currently married, from each decade of life from their thirties to their sixties, excepting men in their forties, where they only had 102 people, making 823 people in total. The fieldwork was conducted between the 9th and 12th of June this year, by means of an internet questionnaire. No information is available on how the respondents were chosen.

Surprisingly, I feel, almost a third in some degree of a sexless marriage felt that sex was just too much of pain in the bum (figuratively, not literally!), much higher than the percentage who thought love had faded on either or both sides of the relationship.

Note also in Q12 and Q13 the difference between how people with experience of ED reacted versus the good intentions of those who had not.
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