世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2]

goo Research recently performed a large investigation into HIV and AIDS awareness amongst the Japanese. 38,474 people supplied answers to the questions posted in an open to the public internet-based survey, availiable for a week at the end of November. The demographics were 2.7% 19 or under, 25.4% between 20 and 29, 39.8% from 30 to 39, 22.8% between 40 and 49, 7.2% between 50 and 59, and 2.3% sixty and over.

One of the more interesting results is the figure that almost one in three blame foreigners or Japanese playing around overseas as the reason for the increase in AIDS cases in Japan. This is an important figure to note, as it is an often recited statistic that a big number of Japanese blame foreigners for nasty diseases, an attitude I feel is a bit racist, especially as it usually comes from people who complain about discrimination from the Japanese. Whether or not 31.7% does represent a big number, and from that 31.7% how many are worried about the Japanese playing away from home versus the foreigner contingent, I’ll leave that for others to discuss.

Also of note are the condom usage statistics. Unfortunately, those in monogamous relationships are not listed separately, as that certainly affects usage rate, as does the low rate of usage of The Pill (must find some stats on that!).
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Since it’s nearly the holiday season, let’s look at fun in Japan!

goo Research, in conjunction with NTT Resonace anand Mitsubishi Research, carried out a survey of 30,456 members of their internet monitor group in mid-September to find out what was their definition of fun. The respondents were 57.3% male, with 1.5% aged nineteen or under, 23.8% in their twenties, 40.3% in their thirties, 23.6% in their forties, 7.9% in their fifties, 2.0% in their sixties, 0.4% in their seventies, and 0.5% did not disclose their ages.

One surprising figure is the mere two percent who find enjoyment through religion or supernatural stuff. The actual number of members of religious groups is around 8.8%, so it seems not very many people at all derive pleasure from their practice. Perhaps, as Marx said, religion is the opium of the people from which the majority of people derive merely reassurance to keep them secure. Of course, as a member of Soka Gakkai myself, I would say that most of the people I know who practise do indeed appear to derive pleasure from their activities.
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infoPlant published a survey on purchase and consumption of low-alcohol drinks. They got 6,071 responses, 63.3% female, from their usual method of an iMode menu-based prize draw survey, held for a week at the end of November.

Note that low-alcohol drinks here are not what you might guess them to be, namely reduced- or zero-alcohol beers, but instead means any alcoholic drink that is not too strong; a chugging rather than a sipping drink, perhaps. The survey introduction specifically mentions chu-hai, a usually rather dangerous fruity cocktail that often weighs in at 7% alcohol by volume yet tastes like just a fruit soda, along with beer and ready-mixed can cocktails as being the drinks of interest in the questionnaire.

Whether or not people were answering for themselves personally or for their whole family, or whether or not purchases in bars and restaurants were included is not clear, although I suspect that it means store-bought alcohol, judging by the answers to question 2.
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The Smoking Cessation Information Centre recently sponsored research to discover what smokers’ reactions to tax hikes in cigarettes would be. They interviewed 1,980 smokers via an internet-based questionnaire at the start of December. This poll is rather timely as there are plans to raise the tobacco tax by a mere 20 yen per packet, to about 290 yen for 20, probably still the cheapest in the developed world.

Of course, people saying they are going to quit and people actually quitting are two different things. All the evidence suggests that raising taxes brings in more money overall, as the rate of quitters never reaches the rate of tax increase. Anything that does something to decrease the number of smokers, however, is most welcome. Simple things like effective smoking segregation at restaurants are not yet implemented here. Even though most restaurants (rather than izakaya pubs-with-food places) are heavily frequented by women (in my experience it’s often over 75%, and quite often, in fact, I am the only man there!) and only about 10% of women smoke, few restaurants are all non-smoking; in fact often it is either 50:50 or no segregation at all!

Also note that at least one in eight do not seem to believe the literature telling you smoking is bad for you, and two-thirds think it’s expensive.
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goo Research recently carried out a survey on Oseibo gifts, the traditional end of year gift-giving period in Japan, in conjunction with Yomiuri Shimbun and NTT Resonance. Just 1,079 people were questioned from their internet monitor group, but no breakdown by age or sex is reported, nor is the sample size for each individual question noted.

Luckily at my place of work there is no Oseibo bribery gift-giving custom from employee to boss, but we do get the occasional free calendar or diaries from associated companies, and a friend of the family usually gives us a couple of jars of instant coffee.
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InfoPLANT conducted a self-selecting survey in the middle of October through the iMode menuing system, to which 9,290 people replied, with just a third of them male, to find out what people do in the train.

I have a two hour commute myself, with about 40 minutes each way actually spent in the train. My usual activities are mobile phone mailing and reading a book, with my current reading material being a kanji study text book. I don’t usually sleep during my normal commute, although at the weekends I often feel my eyelids rather heavy. I’m not surprised at the high use of mobile phone games, but most of the men, especially, seem to play just mah jongg or pachinko games.
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Forgive the horrendously punny headline with a rather naff neologism, but MyVoice recently conducted a survey of their MyVoice internet community here in Japan to find out their views regarding Social Networking Services (SNS). 15,537 people, 60% female, completed the web-based opinion poll, with almost four in ten of the respondents being in their thirties.

Speaking personally, I’ve never really been into online communities, and even when I seriously played MMRPGs, I kept friendships at purely functional levels in-game, and although I was more outgoing on message boards, I never moved to private messaging or email, let alone anything more serious. I get the impression that mixi and others do appeal to the demographic that are looking for “anything more serious”, though! It’s interesting that people would much, much prefer to invite real-life friends, though.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

In September of this year, the Cabinet Office Japan conducted an opinion poll, interviewing 1,896 people, 55% female regarding attitudes towards environmental issues. This rather lengthy survey will be split over three days. Now for lifestyle and car issues – people on the whole still want stuff – perhaps they hope that it will be others who make changes to their lifestyles.

Q14: Considering the high production, high consumption, high disposal society, to control consumption of natural resources, reduce waste, reuse and recycle and reduce the burden on the environment, What do you think about the promotion of measures for establishing a recycling-oriented society? Select the one that is closest to your way of thinking.

If the current lifestyle level drops, I cannot accept it	1.7%
It is best if without dropping the current lifestyle level, whilst continuing high production and high consumption, we have active promotion of waste reuse and recycling	29.3%
If waste disposal facilities or natural resources run out, we cannot avoid moving to a recycling-oriented society	21.7%
Even if the current lifestyle level drops, we should move to a recycling-oriented society	17.6%
Whilst changing the current attitudes to the importance of owning and consuming stuff, regardless of any drop to the current lifestyle level, we should move to a recycling-oriented society	14.5%
I don’t know what sort of society a recycling-oriented society is	7.1%
Other	0.1%
Don’t know	8.0%

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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

In September of this year, the Cabinet Office Japan conducted an opinion poll, interviewing 1,896 people, 55% female regarding attitudes towards environmental issues. This rather lengthy survey will be split over three days. Note that only 14% sell unwanted goods – sodai gomi day is legendardy for finding discarded treasure! Last time I was in Germany I was charged 30 cents (42 yen or so) for a high quality reusable plastic bag at Spar, but the Japanese seem prepared to pay only as much as 5 yen, but perhaps they are picturing paying for the current cheap thin bags?

Q9: Do you usually endeavour to reuse and recycle? Which of the following do you try to do? (Multiple answer)

Thoroughly separate and categorise rubbish before throwing it out	82.2%
To make things easier to recycle, wash bottles, etc before disposal	63.9%
Use unneeded goods for another purpose, such as using old clothers as dusters or cloths	41.9%
Buy goods in reusable containers, like milk in bottles	17.0%
Actively purchase goods made from recycled materials	15.7%
Sell unneeded goods at second-hand shop, bazaar, fleamarket, etc	13.9%
Use old products rather than buying new ones	7.1%
Other	0.3%
Nothing in particular	6.1%
Don’t know	0.3%

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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

In September of this year, the Cabinet Office Japan conducted an opinion poll, interviewing 1,896 people, 55% female regarding attitudes towards environmental issues. This rather lengthy survey will be split over three days. Note that the high degree of recycling of packaging and sorting rubbish is due in part to many municipalities implementing separated rubbish collection and part to most stations, convenience stores, etc, having separate bins prominently positioned. The overall feeling I get from the answers is that people do put a little bit of effort into environmental protection at a personal level, but the motivation seems to be as much just saving money as any other more altruistic goal.

Q1: In your daily lifestyle, which of the following environmental protection activities do you make effort to do? (Multiple answer)

Recycle paper, milk packs, PET bottles, cans, etc, and dispose of rubbish separately	73.4%
Don’t pour oil and food scraps down the drain	56.9%
Try not to set air conditioner too low or heater too high	50.9%
Save electricity and water, and use low energy products	46.3%
Reduce rubbish as much as possible	45.0%
As much as possible, avoid buying single-use items.	28.0%
Buy recycled paper-based and other kind to the environment products	27.0%
Try to prevent creation of noise pollution	26.7%
Don’t take a plastic bag from the shop when shopping	23.2%
Other	0.3%
Nothing in particular	7.2%
Don’t know	0.2%

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