世論 What Japan Thinks

According to a recent survey on robots conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com, domestic robots are broadly welcomed, but there is strong reluctance towards letting robots help out with the softer skills.

Demographics

One the 4th of September 2007 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor panel employed in the public and private sectors answered a private internet-based questionnaire. 77.3% of the sample was male, 12.7% in their twenties, 38.7% in their thirties, 33.8% in their forties, 13.9% in their fifties, and 0.9% in their sixties.

A Roomba might be nice around our living room to occassionally scoot around and pick up fluff and crumbs from under the sofa and the table, although I don’t really see it as a substitute for my weekly hoovering, just something that makes my job a bit easier on Sunday mornings. I don’t really see how a clothes washing robot could be effectively made; tasks like hanging out the washing, for instance, are rather intricate, and going around the house picking up dirty clothes is a nice image but impractical given the current state of the art in robotics.
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Ahh, this is a survey that is sure to be misconstrued and misquoted in the coming weeks and months. Already I’ve seen a poor summary from Kyodo News on Japan Today, and I’m waiting for the usual suspect to throw in his tuppence-worth on it. I’m talking about a recent survey sponsored by the Cabinet Office Japan on the subject of protecting human rights.

Demographics

Between the 21st of June and the 1st of July 2007 3,000 people aged 20 or older were randomly selected from the voter rolls. 1,766 people, or 58.9%, were available and chose to take part in the survey conducted by means of face-to-face interviews. 53.3% were female, 8.1% in their twenties, 16.8% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, 19.8% in their sixties, and 18.1% aged seventy or older.

In Q15, Hansen’s disease is leprosy.

Q17 is quite timely, with another story just coming to light about three guys who met through the internet with the purpose of doing someone in at random, it seems.

Oh, and the photograph is of ex-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and a couple of human rights mascots, both called Ken. Don’t ask.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Ahh, this is a survey that is sure to be misconstrued and misquoted in the coming weeks and months. Already I’ve seen a poor summary from Kyodo News on Japan Today, and I’m waiting for the usual suspect to throw in his tuppence-worth on it. I’m talking about a recent survey sponsored by the Cabinet Office Japan on the subject of protecting human rights.

Demographics

Between the 21st of June and the 1st of July 2007 3,000 people aged 20 or older were randomly selected from the voter rolls. 1,766 people, or 58.9%, were available and chose to take part in the survey conducted by means of face-to-face interviews. 53.3% were female, 8.1% in their twenties, 16.8% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, 19.8% in their sixties, and 18.1% aged seventy or older.

The Dowa issue in Q10 is the problem of treatment from the old Buraku-min caste as there is still some discrimination against them today.

Q13 is a difficult one to decipher. On a superficial level, just 3.2% believe foreigner discrimination is inevitable, which is good, but conversely only about three in ten tag unfair treatment as discrimination. Of course, what sort of unfair treatment the respondent is thinking about is not described, nor is even what sort of foreigner they are basing their answer on.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Ahh, this is a survey that is sure to be misconstrued and misquoted in the coming weeks and months. Already I’ve seen a poor summary from Kyodo News on Japan Today, and I’m waiting for the usual suspect to throw in his tuppence-worth on it. I’m talking about a recent survey sponsored by the Cabinet Office Japan on the subject of protecting human rights.

Demographics

Between the 21st of June and the 1st of July 2007 3,000 people aged 20 or older were randomly selected from the voter rolls. 1,766 people, or 58.9%, were available and chose to take part in the survey conducted by means of face-to-face interviews. 53.3% were female, 8.1% in their twenties, 16.8% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, 19.8% in their sixties, and 18.1% aged seventy or older.

The key question is, of course, what do Japanese consider human rights? This question is not directly asked, but Q1 sets the scene by mentioning the eternal and inviolate rights from the Constitution of Japan. This document includes basic rights such as the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, it also includes the right to choose and dismiss public officials and universal adult suffrage (Article 15), a right denied to foreigners, and the freedom to choose one’s occupation (Article 22), another right denied to many visa holders. Therefore, it can clearly be seen that the rights available to all citizens are not all available to resident aliens (and I personally believe that Article 15 and perhaps 22 are acceptable), therefore Q12 is not as bad as it sounds.
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When this report popped up on japan.internet.com’s web site, I first thought they’d made a mistake and reprinted a survey from last week, but after a double-check I realised that it was actually a rather clever and appropriate follow-on survey to that recent look at how working women viewed their lot in the office, this time JR Tokai Express Research Inc looking at how males perceived male-female disparity in the office.

Demographics

On the 17th of August 2007 331 men from the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group who worked in private industry took part in a private internet-based questionnaire. 100.0% were male, of course, 9.1% were in their twenties, 38.4% in their thirties, 37.8% in their forties, and 14.8% in their fifties.

One thing you might note is that this time those in their thirties and forties form the biggest group, whereas for women more were in their twenties and thirties. This reflects to some extent the reality in Japanese working life that women tend to abandon their careers (I looked before at some of the issues behind this phenomenon)

As noted before, for those studying Japanese, the word used the the questions below was 格差, kakusa, which translates to disparity rather than perhaps 差別, sabetsu, discrimination. I’m not sure how the different wordings might have affected the responses; for me “disparity” describes the state of the workplace, whereas “discrimination” suggests active policies favouring men.
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One complaint I often hear from fellow foreigners in Japan is that the cost of having kids is expensive, if not prohibitive, although I often have a suspicion that those saying it have an axe to grind and are inflating costs, much like those Westerners who constantly complain about racist behaviour as if it were a daily occurance. However, perhaps another reason that foreigners find childbirth, or the prospect thereof, a scary prospect is that they are not aware of all the support that local governments provide to parents. With this in mind, perhaps some of my readers with young children will find this survey by goo Research into child medical fees and child-rearing support informative.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 9th of July 2007 1,989 members of goo Research’s online monitor pool with children of middle school or younger ages successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 51.4% of the sample was female, 28.6% in their twenties, 29.0% in their thirties, 25.4% in their forties, and 17.0% aged fifty or above.

The biggest help for new parents is a lump sum from the local government on the birth of a child, with the same amount being offered to all parents regardless of income levels, usually 400,000 yen, which is enough to cover most straightforward births. However, it is interesting to note that in Q2 and Q3 about one in six has not heard of and doesn’t plan to take advantage of this money.

My employer also pays a child support allowance, but the value of it barely covers the nappy bill, I would guess!
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This is one of these surveys reports where there are eyebrow-raising statistics reported and I’d love to get my hands on the fuller results. At my place of work, for instance, I’ve worked with two women who were extremely capable but were very slow to get promoted to the management layer, with one of them, I suspect, held back by being a working mother and working mostly to regulation hours, despite the fact that she was extremely organised and could get everything done as required without needing to stay to 10pm every night in pointless meetings.

So, japan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into working women’s attitudes.

Demographics

On the 27th of July 2007 330 women from the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group who worked in private industry took part in a private internet-based questionnaire. 100.0% were female, of course, 24.2% were in their twenties, 48.2% in their thirties, 24.2% in their forties, and 3.3% in their fifties.

For those studying Japanese, note that the word used the the questions below was 格差, kakusa, which translates to disparity rather than perhaps 差別, sabetsu, discrimination. I’m not sure how the different wordings might have affected the responses; for me “disparity” describes the state of the workplace, whereas “discrimination” suggests active policies favouring men, so perhaps it is easier for women to describe their office as having disparity?
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Last year two of the big stories in Japan were children killing themselves due to bullying, and group suicides with people meeting over the internet in suicide clubs. Regardless of how tragic each incident is, these types of suicides make up just a few percentage points of the overall figures, with physical ill-health in older people being the main trigger for suicides. To find out what the average Japanese thinks, the Cabinet Office of Japan sponsored an opinion poll on the topic of building a healthy heart (suicide prevention methods).

Demographics

3,000 adults were selected randomly from the Japanese voter lists and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Of the original sample, 1,728 answered the questionnaire, a response rate of 57.6%. 54.7% of the sample was female, 8.1% in their twenties, 15.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 22.0% in their fifties, 21.1% in their sixties, and 17.6% aged seventy or older.

Note that the buzzword for the suicide prevention methods is こころの健康づくり, kokoro no kenkou-zukuri, literally translated as building a healthy heart.

Perhaps I’m lucky, but my employer carries out all the activities in Q10. Whether or not anyone acts on the information provided is another matter altogether, of course!
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Last year two of the big stories in Japan were children killing themselves due to bullying, and group suicides with people meeting over the internet in suicide clubs. Regardless of how tragic each incident is, these types of suicides make up just a few percentage points of the overall figures, with physical ill-health in older people being the main trigger for suicides. To find out what the average Japanese thinks, the Cabinet Office of Japan sponsored an opinion poll on the topic of building a healthy heart (suicide prevention methods).

Demographics

3,000 adults were selected randomly from the Japanese voter lists and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Of the original sample, 1,728 answered the questionnaire, a response rate of 57.6%. 54.7% of the sample was female, 8.1% in their twenties, 15.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 22.0% in their fifties, 21.1% in their sixties, and 17.6% aged seventy or older.

Note that the buzzword for the suicide prevention methods is こころの健康づくり, kokoro no kenkou-zukuri, literally translated as building a healthy heart.

Although Q5 indicates the majority of people would seek professional help for depression, I suspect there is quite a gap between what people say here and what they actually would do.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Last year two of the big stories in Japan were children killing themselves due to bullying, and group suicides with people meeting over the internet in suicide clubs. Regardless of how tragic each incident is, these types of suicides make up just a few percentage points of the overall figures, with physical ill-health in older people being the main trigger for suicides. To find out what the average Japanese thinks, the Cabinet Office of Japan sponsored an opinion poll on the topic of building a healthy heart (suicide prevention methods).

Demographics

3,000 adults were selected randomly from the Japanese voter lists and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Of the original sample, 1,728 answered the questionnaire, a response rate of 57.6%. 54.7% of the sample was female, 8.1% in their twenties, 15.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 22.0% in their fifties, 21.1% in their sixties, and 17.6% aged seventy or older.

Note that the buzzword for the suicide prevention methods is こころの健康づくり, kokoro no kenkou-zukuri, literally translated as building a healthy heart.

I feel Q3 is flawed. The statements do not have simple yes/no answers, so perhaps either degrees of agreement or opinions on the frequency of such occurances would have been more illuminating.
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