世論 What Japan Thinks

I want someday learn how to write Japanese well, as do most Japanese themselves, according to the results of this recent survey from iShare into handwriting.

Demographics

Between the 27th of August and the 1st of September 2009 545 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.5% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 29.2% in their thirties, and 36.1% in their forties.

Having said that I want to learn how to write Japanese neatly, perhaps first I should actually learn how to write in English, as I do have a horrendous scrawl, which does become legible to a degree if I slow down.

When it comes to making notes at meetings or sketching ideas out, etc, I nearly always use paper first, however, as even though I have a reasonably good typing speed, I can write and listen at the same time during meetings, and for ideas, underlining things on paper, inserting words, expanding concepts always seems far more dynamic on paper, and easier to follow than just raw, perfect text.
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Although when I lived in Ayr I used to go to their racecourse, I’ve felt absolutely zero interesting in racecourses in Japan, the subject of a recent survey from iShare.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 26th of August 2009 545 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private online questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 34.1% in their twenties, 33.0% in their thirties, and 32.8% in their forties.

The horses is one of the few things that one in Japan can legally gamble on. Rather than lots of small betting shops like there is in the UK, instead there are massive gambling halls where everyone gathers to (presumably, as I’ve never been inside) watch satellite broadcasts of the races and bet.

Despite TV adverts portraying horse racing as hip and happening I see mostly middle-aged men shuffling in and out of the bookies and the racetracks.
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With this summer’s poor weather causing a thin harvest of vegetables thus an increase in prices, iShare decided to look at a current hot topic, oddly-shaped vegetables.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of August 2009 538 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private online questionnaire. 56.3% of the sample were male, 29.7% in their twenties, 31.4% in their thirties, and 38.8% in their forties.

I’ve not seen any oddly-shaped veggies in the supermarket myself, although I’ve bought such ones at a farmers market or other direct from the farm outlet.

As for price increases, potatoes and onions are definitely up about 25%, cucumbers are in a bit of short supply, so it’s difficult to say, and lettuce is very expensive, as most seem to be about the same price as last year but half the size. I’ve not really noticed any difference for other veggies, however.
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Here’s a nice survey from iShare looking at hangovers.

Demographics

Between the 28th and 31st of July 551 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.4% of the sample were male, 38.7% in their twenties, 27.2% in their thirties, and 34.1% in their forties.

I’ve heard a number of people say good things about Ukon no Chikara and other tumeric-based hangover avoidance techniques, but I’ve not tried it myself.

The Japanese for hangover is 二日酔い, futsukayoi, literally “two days drunk”, which I think is a great expression! I’ve never had a three days drunk experience, but I’m surprised that only less than half the drinkers have had a “never again!” experience.
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In the past I have looked at women-only carriages, but this time I present a survey from iShare looking at train groping and men-only carriages.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 15th of July 2009 543 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.5% of the sample were male, 33.3% were in their twenties, 31.5% in their thirties, and 35.2% in their forties.

I’m not in favour of men-only carriages (although I strongly support women-only) as I’m not really sure they’d change anything; I’d love to know why people wanted them, as surely it cannot just be due to the fear of being misidentified as a groper.

For a sillier look at train segregation, here’s a ranking survey I translated previously.

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On my recent post on buttering up your Japanese wife I had a question from Galerius about pocket money, so I decided to look up about how much Japanese men get each month. In two in three married couples it is the wife who controls the family budget (see Q8) and she gives her husband an allowance each month to cover his lunch, after-work drinking and other incidental expenses. So, I found a pair of surveys, one on how much pocket money fathers get, and another on how much of the family budget women secretly skim off to spend on themselves.

Demographics

For the women, between the 22nd and 24th of June 2009 1,180 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.6% of the sample were female, 10.3% were in their teens, 22.9% in their twenties, 31.5% in their thirties, 19.2% in their forties, 9.6% in their fifties, and 6.4% aged sixty or older.

For the men, between the 23rd and 25th of March 2009 1,043 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 7.8% in their teens, 17.1% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 24.8% in their forties, 11.4% in their fifties, and 10.7% 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. Also note that for the men it was only fathers who were asked, and for women it was either all married women or those with children; the stats aren’t quite clear,

I get as much or as little pocket money as I need to get, and usually use about 400 yen per weekday, plus charging lunch at the work canteen to my credit card.
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[part 1][part 2]

Shortly after the lay judge system was introduced in Japan earier this year, but before the first actual trial involving members of the public, the Cabinet Office Japan conducted a survey on behalf of the Ministry of Justice into the lay judge system.

Demographics

Between the 28th of May and 7th of June 2009 3,000 members of the public were randomly selected to participate in the survey, conducted by face-to-face interviews. 68.5% of the sample, or 2,054, were available and agreed to answer the questionnaire. 46.3% of them were male, 9.9% in their twenties, 16.0% in their thirties, 17.9% in their forties, 18.0% in their fifties, 21.1% in their sixties, and 17.0% aged seventy or older.

Japan Probe recently published a story from a tip of mine on a curious 3D animated reconstruction of the first lay judge trial, which I hope you find entertainly weird too.

Now, the first trial has completed, one where the defendant admitted to murdering a South Korean neighbour, but the trial was more about sentencing. The prosecution wanted 16 years, lawyers representing the victim’s family wanted 20 or more, but the defence said that their client had been provoked and felt 16 years was too long. As I alluded to in the first part of the survey, many armchair gaijin pundits were sure that he’d get off with a minimal sentence as it was only a foreigner he killed, or that the lay people would not dare disagree with the judge. The actual outcome was that he got 15 years,
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[part 1][part 2]

Shortly after the lay judge system was introduced in Japan earier this year, but before the first actual trial involving members of the public, the Cabinet Office Japan conducted a survey on behalf of the Ministry of Justice into the lay judge system.

Demographics

Between the 28th of May and 7th of June 2009 3,000 members of the public were randomly selected to participate in the survey, conducted by face-to-face interviews. 68.5% of the sample, or 2,054, were available and agreed to answer the questionnaire. 46.3% of them were male, 9.9% in their twenties, 16.0% in their thirties, 17.9% in their forties, 18.0% in their fifties, 21.1% in their sixties, and 17.0% aged seventy or older.

My pet hate about the new system is that too many people, including reputable newspapers who should know better, call it a jury system and think it must be unfair because it differs from the UK and US systems that they are familiar with. Here the lay judges get a chance to question the victim and they sit in deliberation with the professional judges to decide not just guilt or innocence, but also the sentencing.

My second pet hate is… ah, I have a million and one pet hates about the cynical, and quite often flat-out racist attitudes adopted by many ex-pats in Japan regarding how badly they believe the lay judges will perform. I invite them all to use this survey to back up their prejudices, if they can.
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I’ve always found Japanese saying “You’re good with chopsticks” such an empty compliment as a lot of them seem pretty poor themselves, and if they ever get loose on a knife and fork it’s often a total disaster. Perhaps what they are saying is that they themselves are no good with a knife and fork, a situation that this survey from iShare seems to back up.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 21st of July 2009 574 members of the free email forwarding service CLUB BBQ completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 32.6% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, and 36.2% in their forties.

Just thinking about it, one problem my wife has is pressing the knife down when cutting things; most Westerners (I hope! Or at least most Europeans do…) hold knives like we hold our pens, with the index finger straight out, but Japanese tend to hold pens in their fists, so perhaps the correct position is unfamiliar and uncomfortable to them.

I’d also have loved to have seen them asked if they can eat spaghetti without slurping or without holding their face a few centimetres above the place and shovelling the pasta in with both fork and spoon together.
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This year sees the fourth year of Cool Biz, an initiative started by the Japanese government to persuade businesses and homes to set air conditioners to 28°C in the summer and to wear lighter clothes and no ties. To see how it has been progressing, Cabinet Office Japan looked at awareness of Cool Biz.

Demographics

Between the 28th of May and the 7th of June 2009 of the 3,000 people selected at random from all over Japan, 2,054 people (or 68.5%) completed a questionnaire conducted via face-to-face interviews.

Looking at the details on occupation, it’s interesting that the government still has only a “housewife” category, not a gender-neutral “homemaker” or a “/househusband”.

I most often feel the air-conditioner is too strong in trains, although so far this year it’s been a bit more gentle than usual. Although my employer makes a big fuss about supporting Cool Biz and selling Eco Ideas, my office this year too is 23°C or 24°C, cold on my skin in short sleeves.
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