世論 What Japan Thinks

There seems to have been a definite theme running through the goo Rankings I’ve been publishing over the recent weeks, but let me assure you anything you may read into this is purely your own imagination! This time let’s look at what people feel worried about when they get married, the marriage blues in other words, with detailed ranking for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

A surprising result is that for whether work will understand, where it is men who are much more worried. This reflects two aspects of Japanese social structure; first, women are expected and often expect themself to quit either after marriage or once they have children (indeed, concerns about being a working mother was very low on the list of women’s worries), and second, salarymen are often expected to work (or drink) until the last train home, so new grooms are concerned about how they are going to be able to excuse themselves from their responsibilities.

For me it was probably a combination of a change in lifestyle (no longer being able to just lie in bed until noon, not bother shaving, then order pizza for dinner), a lack of private time to wander around the shops, and no spare money to spend on bits and pieces for my computer. However, these are of course outweighed by the benefits.
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Today, 22nd of February, or 2/22, can be read as “nyan, nyan, nyan”, the sound of a mewing cat, therefore it has been designated as the Day of the Cat. To celebrate, goo Ranking looked at where cats like to enter. Yes, that is a stupid question!

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 25th of January 2008 1,126 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 3.6% were in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 35.1% in their thirties, 27.3% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 7.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample. How many were cat owners or cat lovers was not documented.

Two of the top cat blogs are Mako and the superstar of the cat world, Hatchan, who is immortalised in not just photo books, but they also have stuffed toys of him in real-life poses, real-life size and weight. Number 11 might be unfamiliar to you, but searching Google images for 猫なべ,neko nabe, will soon educate you as to what it is all about. Alternatively, here’s a video via Japan Probe:

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So you go, and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home, and you cry
And you want to die

So sung The Smiths, in what was voted the second-best lyric of all time in Britain a few years back. Interestingly enough, that which caused so much Morrissey-inflicted student angst was voted in a recent survey conducted by goo Ranking as the thing Japanese find most unexpectedly enjoyable for one. Well, almost; a concert could be at a club, but let’s not nit-pick!

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Don’t ask me why cat’s cradle comes in at number 18 as I only know it as a solo activity. At 19 is “The Game of Life”, which is I believe the most popular or recognisable board game in Japan, much like Monopoly is the representative game in the UK and the USA.
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I hope you had, or are having, or are about to have as nice a St Valentine’s Day as I have had, but just in case you didn’t, in the hope of cheering you up by showing you some people who had a worse day than you, here are a couple of surveys from goo Ranking on first why friends can’t be lovers (with separate male and female results), and second on women’s and men’s miserable Valentine memories.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% aged sixty or older. 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’m not sure how many “no answers” there were for Q1, or if married people were asked to recall when they were single, etc.

Just in case the idea of obligatory chocolates is unfamiliar to you, last year Mari’s Diary covered how she feels about having to give chocolates to colleagues.

Photo taken by Kluv32.
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This week too was a bit thin for silly surveys, so the best I can do for you today is a not really silly and not really very long, but quite interesting pair of surveys from DIMSDRIVE Research’s 133rd ranking survey on two Japanese teeth-related subjects, frequency of brushing and oral care other than brushing.

Demographics

Both surveys were conducted between the 16th and 24th of January 2008. The first had 12,020 respondents with 52.9% female, the second 11,963 with 53.0% female.

You’ll notice in the second question that regular check-ups feature really quite low, and flossing or inter-dental brushing (uggh, dislike both and don’t bother myself) feature nowhere, not even in the detailed run-down of the results by age group. Also, there are only about 5,000 votes in total, which means about half the population don’t take extra any oral care bar brushing. For those of you who have experienced oyaji breath you might be surprised to learn that it was young men rather than older ones who were more likely to brush less than once a day or not at all.

I also chew Xylitol gum after every meal at home; PLUS X Gum from Lotte is exceptionally nice.
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The best way to save money before payday, or any other day of the month, is of course to read Nihon Hacks, but just in case you can’t get enough ideas from there, here is goo Ranking’s look at top ways to economise before payday.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

For some reason, Google didn’t properly index last November’s story on tightfisted techniques, so hopefully this link will give Google a kick in the right direction! Actually, I don’t think I do any of the below – if I run out of cash I just use my credit card more…
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Forgive me stealing the title of a rather famous book for this latest survey from goo Ranking, which reveals a most interesting side of the Japanese psyche, one that many Westerners (including me) find difficult to comprehend. The survey is entitled ranking of unexpected traits in skillful people, suggesting what habits people would not expect to see in successful employees.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% aged sixty or older. 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 suspect those who are not familiar with Japanese working practices will no doubt be laughing at some of the answers, and those who have worked in Japan will find that these answers explain some reactions you’ve seen to your Western working style. I must admit to not knowing why number one is unexpected, but 2 to 5 and perhaps 6 are pretty much much what one would expect from many effective people in the West. I think number 10 implies either someone too young, or who doesn’t look like they were up until 3am the night before wired on coffee and ciggies, free from bags under their eyes and other signs of stress and overwork as much as one who is too concerned with preening.

I chose to use the male pronoun for a reason.
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You may remember last month I published a survey on what makes Japanese women run a mile, so now it’s time to look with goo Ranking at what female actions make men run a mile at drinking parties.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% aged sixty or older. Obviously only the male 45.6%, or 499 people, answered this particular question. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

The most obvious difference between this and the previous survey is groping! It was the top hate for women, but the bottom one for men. Another notable exception from the men’s list is the number 7 from the women’s list, pestering someone for their phone number! My top two would have to be smoking and poor table manners.
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Sillyness will be a day early this week, due to a more appropriate post due on Sunday and Monday! Here’s a great ranking survey from goo Ranking, one arm of the best online polling organisation in Japan, on what appearance makes a man appear like an otaku, and what makes a woman look like a otaku.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of November 2007 1,101 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample was female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 10.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score reported is the relative number of votes each choice got, not the percentage of the sample that chose each option.

Particularly for the male answers, otaku has strong connotations of being an anime or manga freak, rather than the slightly more generic use of someone who’s heavily into any hobby, judging by the answers below!
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From today, normal service will be resumed at 世論 What Japan Thinks after the New Year holidays. So, without further ado, let’s look at the first Silly Sunday survey of the New Year; here goo Ranking looked at break-up reasons people just couldn’t get their heads around, covering both what men hear from their girlfriends and what women heard from their boyfriends.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of November 2007 1,101 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample was female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 10.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score reported is the relative number of votes each choice got, not the percentage of the sample that chose each option.

I’ll not relate any personal stories here, but I did once fix up a mate with a friend of my wife’s (thankfully she doesn’t speak English so she won’t be reading this blog!) but he suddenly chickened out, so we had to tell her that he had been transferred, which always struck me as a hopelessly transparent excuse
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