世論 What Japan Thinks

Last year (I’m just getting round to translating it now!) iShare conducted an interesting survey looking into family budget management, split into two parts, those who wish to marry and those already married. Today is the unmarried half of the survey.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of December 2010 1,140 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split into two groups; first, there were 568 unmarried but hoping to be married people; 66.9% of them were male, 18.5% in their twenties, and 81.5% in their thirties. Next, 572 were married, with 55.9% of them male, 6.1% in their twenties, and 93.9% in their thirties.

My Google AdSense earnings used to be a secret account, but then I had to dig into them to fund a couple of things, so now it contributes ever so slightly to the general family finances.
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With today being Coming of Age Day in Japan, we of course get a number of surveys on these new adults. This one from O-Net, a marriage agency, caught my eye.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 29th of November 2010 800 members of the Rakuten Research monitor panel who would be coming of age in 2011 – that is, born between the 2nd of April 1990 and the 1st of April 1991 – and were not married completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female. Furthermore, 75.0% of the males and 67.8% of the females were in university, 13.9% in colleges or other further education, 5.6% had full-time regular jobs, 5.7% in other jobs, 2.5% unemployed, 0.9% in the process of starting a job, and one other. 57.3% lived at home with parents, 39.1% were living alone, 2.% with other family, 1.3% with friends and 0.4% in other accomodation.

There’s a good number of surprising statistics, such as over two in five having thought of suicide, three in five males being herbivore, and just 2.4% supportive of the political direction of Japan.

The survey itself was a bit longer than the questions below, but I’ve run out of time tonight to translate…
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One of the Democratic Party of Japan’s good ideas from my point of view was to propose staggered holidays across the country rather than the current situation of all 120 million taking their May Golden Week holiday all at the same time. To see how this proposal was being received by the public, the Cabinet Office Japan conducted a survey into this topic.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 31st of October 2010 3,000 people selected at random from resident registers were approached to take part in a survey, and 1,953 people, or 65.1% agreed to a face-to-face interview. The sex breakdown was not reported.

Currently in Japan there is the Golden Week holiday over the end of April and the start of May when the vast majority of the public have a holiday, plus four public holidays are set to be on a particular Monday in a particular month. The proposal from the government is to split the country from north to south into five blocks and assign a week’s spring and autumn holiday period (the autumn holiday being new) to each block, and move the four Monday holidays to a fixed date and no longer make them public holidays.

I used to be very much in favour of this idea, but on reading a few opinions from other foreigners I’m a bit less keen on the idea, the reason being that the ideal situation would be to make easier to take holidays at one’s own convenience, just like most of the rest of the world. One benefit, however, would be an easing of traffic by spreading it over five weeks, and hopefully lower prices as hotels now have a ten week busy period rather than the current situation of just one week of complete overbooking, and the attendant increased money circulation from more people being able to take a holiday rather than just staying at home as they cannot afford to travel.
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Although there is still some time for the Eco Point award system for digital televisions, air conditioners and refrigerators to run, from the start of this month the points have been halved, so now seemed a good time for goo Research to take a look at what people thought of the scheme, in a survey reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

From the 3rd to 6th of December 2010 1,089 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

I think the scheme has been effective from a financial point of view, prising open Japanese wallets to get some money circulating. From an environmental point of view, it will help reduce household electricity consumption by replacing old inefficient equipment, but looking at the overall carbon cycle there’s less of a clear benefit. For my part, we upgraded our 28 inch CRT television to a 42 inch plasma, but looking at the power consumption the old one was rated at around 200 watts but the new one is 330 watts. Oops.

If they want new products to promote, I’d like to see fluorescent and LED light bulbs being chosen, as lighting uses more that televisions or fridges, and none of the current Eco Point products can compare to the savings from LED.
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goo Research, in conjunction with President Family magazine, recently conducted a survey into stress in the family, which will feature in the January 2011 edition of said President Family magazine. The printed edition should feature much more information than in this short excerpt, of course.

Demographics

1,006 women in their forties with children who were members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographic information was provided.

I can identify with the husband being the main source of stress… Second would have to be our upstairs neighbours, or at least our thin ceiling.
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After looking at if people who quit stayed smoke-free due to the recent massive tax hike, here we have iShare looking at the overall population to see who quit smoking due to the price rise. As most people predicted, the long-overdue price rise wasn’t matched by a similar reduction in smoking rates.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 8th of November 2010 661 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.1% of the sample were male, 25.6% in their twenties, 33.4% in their thirties, and 41.0% in their forties.

One slight problem with the data here is that the smoking population at 21.3% of men and 8.3% of women is about half of the usually-accepted figures, although I don’t know why this sample would differ from the general population.
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A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at libraries and the internet. Note that the questions here are focusing on a public web site for the library, rather than internet terminals available within the library.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 29th of October 2010 1,068 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 020.6% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I’m not sure what sort of ebook or music distribution facilities are available on public-facing library sites – my local library has none of that new-fangled nonsense, just searching and reserving books.

Oh, and don’t ask me why the answers to Q1 were rounded to zero decimal places but SQ1 and SQ1 were rounded to one decimal place.
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DIMSDRIVE Research recently published a survey from April that they conducted into views on marriage.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 29th of April 2010 7,764 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group comnpleted a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 10.8% in their twenties, 30.6% in their thirties, 32.0% in their forties, 17.3% in their fifties, and 8.4% aged sixty or older.

I think Q3 should be an essential point of reference for any journalist writing about konkatsu, showing that just 3% of single people are hunting for a wedding partner, and the other 13% doing something might just be asking friends if they know anyone unattached.

Talking of konkatsu, I found this silly little story about the Lucky Star cartoon-featured Washinomiya Shrine’s otaku dating event.
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With the rise in cigarette prices of approximately 100 yen per pack of twenty, adding roughly a third onto the price of the average brand, many smokers took this as an opportunity to quit. This recent survey from Macromill Research doesn’t look at what percentage quit, but instead focuses on how the quitters are coping.

Demographics

Over the 1st and 2nd of November 2010 500 members of the Macromill monitor group who had resolved to stop smoking following the tobacco price rise in October completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 68.4% were male, 12.8% in their twenties, 33.2% in their thirties, 31.8% in their forties, and 22.2% aged fifty or older.

I suppose it’s a good sign that at least some people are quitting, although looking at Q1 and from tales from smokers, relapses can happen at unexpected times, so after a month free from smoking one cannot really say one has kicked the habit. Furthermore, with the end of year party season coming up, thus placing the quitters around people smoking and around drink, the second and third greatest temptations according to Q3SQ1, the risk of relapse will be pretty high, I fear.
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A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into internet donations found a higher than I expected figure of people who have donated to charity over the internet.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 13th of October 2010 1,051 members of the goo Research online monitor group copleted a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve never donated anything over the internet, either in Japan or overseas.
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