世論 What Japan Thinks

For those of you who follow personal Japanese blogs, you’ve no doubt heard all about the rubbish separation and disposal systems in Japan, with one ritual being 粗大ゴミ, sodai gomi, the big rubbish day, with tales of raiding the piles of household furniture and electronics for hidden jewels. With most municipalities now charging for, and with many requiring a special pick-up appointment for disposal of said sodai gomi, iBridge conducted a survey reported on by japan.internet.com into online public services for big rubbish pick-up.

Demographics

On the 23rd of March 2009 300 women from the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 19.0% were in their twenties, 51.7% in their thirties, 21.3% in their forties, 6.7% in their fifties, and 1.3% in their sixties.

Since today is the first day of the new year, many other residents of Japan will be in the same boat as me with a change in the disposal rules – our town now requires recyclable plastic and PET bottles separated, and other plastic thrown out as burnables rather than all together as before. Glass separation has increased from two to three categories, plus uncleanable glass like nail polish bottles becomes unburnable rubbish which now gets thrown out with the burnables, I think. Perhaps I should consult the rubbish police?
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The title of this post is me being rather creative (read “outright lying”) regarding the results of Q2, but regardless, this survey conducted by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet scariness finds the average Japanese web user quite the tim’rous beastie.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 23rd of March 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

If you don’t know what goatse.cx is, think yourself lucky, and do NOT, I repeat NOT, just look it up to see what I am on about! You have been warned.

I personally don’t find the internet scary at all; irritating in places, but not scary.

For reference, in December of 2007 a similar survey was conducted.

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

Although Observing Japan beat me to the punch by already presented extracts from this survey, I will, as is my wont, present the full results of a look by the Cabinet Office Japan at the SDF and defense.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 25th of January 2009 1,781 randomly selected members of the public aged 20 or older completed a face-to-face survey. Initially, 3,000 people were selected, but 40.6%, or 1,219 people, did not take part due to having moved, not being in, refusing, etc. Of those who took part, 52.0% were female, 8.5% in their twenties, 13.9% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 20.6% in their fifties, 23.0% in their sixties, and 18.0% aged seventy or older. 27.5% lived near a military facility, 69.5% did not, and 3.1% didn’t know. However, the definition of “near” was not given.

The SDF, or Self-Defense Force, is the Japanese not-really-a-military-honest force that defends these shores and occasionally forays further afield, such as spending a couple of years hiding in their barracks in Iraq.

In part three of this survey I liked Q11; Better Red Than Dead is not a popular option at all! In Q15, over seven in ten fear a war involving Japan, which to me seems most unlikely. The only circumstance I can see involving Japan is North Korea attacking South Korea, and the only circumstance I can see for that is Kim Jong-il deciding to go out in a blaze of glory, although I hope that his recent stroke has debilitated him enough so he is unable to do anything quite as silly as that.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Although Observing Japan beat me to the punch by already presented extracts from this survey, I will, as is my wont, present the full results of a look by the Cabinet Office Japan at the SDF and defense.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 25th of January 2009 1,781 randomly selected members of the public aged 20 or older completed a face-to-face survey. Initially, 3,000 people were selected, but 40.6%, or 1,219 people, did not take part due to having moved, not being in, refusing, etc. Of those who took part, 52.0% were female, 8.5% in their twenties, 13.9% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 20.6% in their fifties, 23.0% in their sixties, and 18.0% aged seventy or older. 27.5% lived near a military facility, 69.5% did not, and 3.1% didn’t know. However, the definition of “near” was not given.

The SDF, or Self-Defense Force, is the Japanese not-really-a-military-honest force that defends these shores and occasionally forays further afield, such as spending a couple of years hiding in their barracks in Iraq.

Part two of this survey is surprising to me in that a majority of people favour the overseas dispatch of Japanese forces. I would like to have seen a question on why people approve of the anti-piracy mission in Q8; is it to increase Japan’s standing in the UN, that a few boats don’t pose a real threat to a destroyer or two, or what?
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Although Observing Japan beat me to the punch by already presented extracts from this survey, I will, as is my wont, present the full results of a look by the Cabinet Office Japan at the SDF and defense.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 25th of January 2009 1,781 randomly selected members of the public aged 20 or older completed a face-to-face survey. Initially, 3,000 people were selected, but 40.6%, or 1,219 people, did not take part due to having moved, not being in, refusing, etc. Of those who took part, 52.0% were female, 8.5% in their twenties, 13.9% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 20.6% in their fifties, 23.0% in their sixties, and 18.0% aged seventy or older. 27.5% lived near a military facility, 69.5% did not, and 3.1% didn’t know. However, the definition of “near” was not given.

The SDF, or Self-Defense Force, is the Japanese not-really-a-military-honest force that defends these shores and occasionally forays further afield, such as spending a couple of years hiding in their barracks in Iraq.

Part one of this survey had a good example of trying to get the results one wants from a survey. For Q3 they presented a card describing the relative strengths of Japan’s SDF versus China, Taiwan and the two Koreas, while omitting to say that all the other countries have conscription, and Japan’s spending on hardware makes their smaller number of tanks and planes less significant than it seems by just looking at the raw data.
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With almost every day bringing more bad news of how the economic situation at both home and abroad is deteriorating, this recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into the economy is most timely.

Demographics

Between the 28th or January and the 11th of February 2009 10,233 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were male, 1.0% in their teens, 12.5% in their twenties, 33.2% in their thirties, 29.9% in thri forties, 16.1% in their fifties, and 7.3% in their sixties. By occupation, 35.2% were full-time regular employees, 19.4% housewives, 11.3% part-time or casual, 7.6% unemployed, 6.9% self-employed, 6.1% contract workers or temps, 3.6% civil servants, 2.8% students, 2.6% freelance, 2.2% senior management or board-level, 0.9% other governmental organisation employees, and 1.4% in other jobs.

We’ve had major changes at the office due to our sales falling off a cliff. Overtime has been cut (this actually is a good thing, IMO), bonuses cut too due to a complex link between overtime and bonuses, management-level pay and expense account cuts, etc, etc. However, the best thing they could do is to address Warm Biz and Cool Biz as more than just a slogan and actually put some effort into ensuring that the air conditioning runs efficiently. How are you doing?

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Maybe I’ve just been in Japan too long, but I’ve recently noticed train phone manners going downhill, with talking on the phone being an obvious hate, but also people who leave their keypress beep on irritate me a lot. These feelings seemed to be shared by most people, according to this recent survey conducted by Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile use onboard trains.

Demographics

On the 2nd of February 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone using members of the Point On monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. Exactly 50.0% of the sample were female, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% aged fifty or older.

When I go abroad this sort of behaviour doesn’t really bother me, perhaps because I am accepting that it is the social norm for the country I am visiting, or perhaps it is because I’m often trying to sleep on my daily commute.

The picture accompanying this post is a Tokyo manners poster, one of a series of posters they have produced, with today’s statistic added for a more accurate representation of the situation!
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It’s coming up to that time of the year in Japan where the women may express their love and have to express their gratitute, so Macromill Inc looked at women and Valentine’s Day.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of January 2009 515 female members of the Macromill monitor group aged between twenty and thirty-nine completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54 were aged between 20 and 24, 155 between 25 and 29, 174 between 30 and 34, and 132 between 35 and 39.

In Japan there are two different types of chocolate that women must buy for Valentine’s Day. The first kind is “true” (本命, honmei) chocolates, the other “obligatory” (義理, giri); the first goes to your true love (or object of infatuation, etc), the second male colleagues at work. As you may guess, the amount of effort and expense gone to for each type varies greatly!

Note that “traditionally” it is the women who give men presents on Valentine’s Day, and they hope for something in return on White Day, the 14th of March. However, from this year some of the chocolate makers have been promoting 逆チョコ, gyaku choko, reverse chocolates, which come in a mirror imaged box.

Two years ago I translated a similar Macromill Valentine survey that you may want to cross-reference.
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Today’s survey is from not just Japan, but also from China, in a wide-ranging survey from Gallup International conducted into the matters of tourism, food safety, the environment, and the relationship between the two countries.

Demographics

For Japan, between the 5th and 17th of November 2008 1,200 people aged between 15 and 79 were chosen from all over the country at random from residents information and answered the survey either face-to-face or were left with the questionnaire. For China, between the 13th and 19th of November 2008 1,266 people between the ages of 18 and 59 from the 15 largest cities in China completed an internet-based questionnaire.

In the environmental questions in Q5, perhaps surprisingly China is more concerned than Japan about them, but when one looks at their particular worries, Chinese citizens are worried about the immediate threat from airborne and water pollution, this result being reflected in their distrust of their own food products.

I would like to visit the Great Wall of China and see the Terracotta warriors in their home settings, but I worry about being able to find veggie food and about the general level of hygene in the country.
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For this week’s lighter look at opinions, goo Ranking investigated what makes people feel are men’s status symbols, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 26th of September 2008 1,044 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 5.8% in their teens, 12.7% in their twenties, 32.3% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 12.3% in their fifties, and 9.3% 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.

The car being number one should be no suprise to anyone, but I’m surprised with a watch being so high, higher than tailored suits, but perhaps that reflects a conservatism in Japanese dress.

My car is a train, I work in computers, my degree’s from a university probably no-one in Japan’s heard of, and my watch cost 10,000 ANA air miles. From the women’s list, I can only claim to have 7 and 8 as marks of status!
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