世論 What Japan Thinks

It’s the annual be nice to old folks day today, and the big statistical news is that this year over 20% of Japan’s population is over 65, passing Italy on 19.5%. The issue of the aging population and the lack of children in Japan is littered with interesting facts and figures, so I’ll have to dig out a few references to translate sometime in the near future.

I saw a link to quite a surprising survey (not really a poll, but it’s an interesting statistic nonetheless) about the state of Japanese teeth, in particular children’s teeth.

According to a survey by a Nagoya dentist, in 1997 about 4.9% of children were missing adult teeth completely. However, last year the figure had ballooned to 11.6%, and on average each child was missing one or two adult teeth (excluding any wisdom teeth), with the worst case being missing six, over 20% of them!

The story provides no explanation that I can see for why, but it does seem a worrying statistic!

There’s been a survey of opinions on “Warm Biz“, the new initiative after Cool Biz this summer. Cool Biz was to set air conditioners to 28°C and wear short sleeves and no tie, an initiative supported and strongly promoted by Prime Minister Jun-chan. Warm Biz is basically the opposite, to wear thermal undies and set office thermostats to 20°C for the winter. The company I work for supports Cool Biz in theory, but our air conditioners are not very subtle at all, so if they are on they are using blowing out 24°C or 25°C air, which is rather cold on my bare arms. If they are off, like right now, there is no moving air in the office at all so it gets hopelessly stuffy. Note that with Warm Biz they hope to save almost 2.5 times as much energy as with Cool Biz. However, I discovered that Cool Biz saved just a few percentage points of the forecast amount.

The survey took place on the home page for Club BBQ for 24 hours over the 25th and 26th of August, where there were 2,321 self-selecting respondents, 70.8% male, 29.2% female. The sex balance may seem off, but Warm Biz is mainly aimed at businessmen, I feel, so it is not too much of a problem, at least not compared with it being a self-selecting survey.

First up, 78.0% said they supported Warm Biz. Conversely, only 56.7% said they wanted Cool Biz to continue next year.

Perhaps people find it easier to add another layer than take one off. The number of people I see wearing T-shirts under their shirts is quite amazing – I wonder if this is another example of Japanese folk wisdom?

67.3% of those surveyed had heard of Warm Biz, with this perhaps due to the aftereffects of Cool Biz permeating throughout the population.

With 78.0% saying they support Warm Biz, though, where did the extra 10% or so come from? Perhaps this survey was done after reading an article regarding Warm Biz? Over 90% had heard of Cool Biz, however.

Reasons for supporting it included people advocating it themselves (perhaps their office is usually too hot in winter?) and that it will save money on heating. On the other hand, just like for Cool Biz, the most popular dissenting opinion was it being too difficult to work under these conditions.

Regarding Warm Biz becoming established, only 31.4% agreed. 35.9% discounted Warm Biz as just a reaction from Cool Biz, and 48.7% reckoned that there wouldn’t be much difference from last year, indicating many people think it’s just a passing fad.

Back to Cool Biz, 56.7% thought it has been a success this year, although it is supposed to keep running until the end of September.

Looks like still quite a bit of work to do before the public warms to Warm Biz!

The every-five-years population census of Japan is due to take place this year on the first of October. All foreign people who have been living in Japan for at least three months, or plan to live for at least three months more must take part.

Here’s the obligatory cute character’s home page!

The original Japanese text is here. The survey was carried out in October 2003 with a response of 1,417 people from the 2,000 parcipitants chosen. Sorry, but some of the religious terms are not too familiar to me, so the translation may not be very accurate.

Q1: Which of the following do you have in your house?

Shinto shelf	44.1%
Buddhist Altar	49.8%
Shinto God Charm	24.0%
Shinto Paper Offering	7.3%
Temple/Shrine Charm	26.3%
Cooking Stove God Charm	9.8%
None	24.0%
Don’t know	1.5%

Q2: Which of the following do you do:

New Year’s Temple Visit	72.6%
Obon etc Grave Visit	76.0%
Carrying a Charm	25.8%
Visiting Shrines when in Neighbourhood	24.3%
Prayers for Family or Business	22.7%
Reading Fortunes/Horoscopes	8.9%
Reading Religion-Related Books	7.3%
Zen, Yoga, Mass, etc	3.3%
None	5.7%
Don’t know	0.5%

Q3: Which of the following do you think exist?

God (or gods in general)	35.6%
Buddha	36.3%
Ancestors’ Spirits	36.3%
Heaven	12.1%
Hell	10.0%
Other Worlds (Pure Land, etc)	15.9%
Reincarnation/Rebirth	17.8%
Charms and Guards do not Exist	13.0%
Nothing Supernatural Exists	27.0%
Don’t know	10.4%

Q4: What do you think about “god” (“God”? “gods”?) and “Buddha”?

They are almost the same	22.8%
They are completely different	23.9%
They are different, but work in similar ways	23.7%
I’ve never thought about the differences	21.0%
Don’t know	8.5%

Q5: Which of the following do you take note of:

Butsu-metsu (unlucky) wedding day	42.1%
Tomobiki (unlucky) funeral day	42.8%
Purification returning from funeral	30.2%
Sleeping with head pointing northward	31.7%
The number 4	15.3%
Friday the 13th	11.9%
Unlucky year	43.8%
Direction house faces	21.2%
Name kanji stroke count	13.3%
None of them	22.5%
Don’t know	2.0%

Q6: Which of the following do you think are true:

Spoon-bending	9.9%
Blood-type & character	37.8%
Star signs & character and fate	11.9%
Mediums	18.7%
Healing/laying on hands	8.1%
Feng Shui	10.0%
Curses	14.4%
Poltergeist	5.8%
None of them	33.8%
Don’t know	10.1%

Q7: Do you have faith?

Yes	29.1%
No	70.9%

SQ: If Yes, which of the following (more than one OK)

Shinto	22.0%
Buddhism	77.2%
Christianity	7.7%
Other	3.6%
Don’t know	2.7%

Q8: Do you think that to have a happy life, religious is important?

I think it is	38.7%
I don’t think it is	44.2%

Q9: In the future, how will the relationship between Japanese and religion change?

Religion will become essential	3.4%
Religion will be needed more	10.3%
No change from now	58.5%
Religion will become less needed	13.5%
Religion will not be needed at all	4.2%
Don’t know	10.1%

Q10: Are you a member of a religious group?

Yes	8.8%
No	91.2%

SQ: If yes, which ones?

Shinto-related	4.0%
Traditional Buddhist	17.7%
Christian	12.9%
Soka Gakkai	41.9%
Other Nichiren Buddhist	3.2%
Tenri Sect	4.8%
Shinnyo-en	4.0%
Other group	9.7%
Don’t know	1.6%

Adapted from a story appearing in the Nikkei.

According to a research team from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry led by Professor Hiroshi Yamato from the Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health in Fukuoka Prefecture, in a survey of medium and large hotels in Kyoto, around 22% of rooms are non-smoking, showing that tobacco counter-measures are not progressing.

The 2003 Health Promotion Law prescribes that at hotels, hospitals and other facilities that lots of people use, passive smoking prevention steps are to be taken.

Professor Yamato highlighted that at tourist areas they should catering to the 70% of Japanese who don’t smoke. He also wanted the government to urge stronger measures, and for customers to raise their voices.

The Kyoto Non-Smoking Promotion Reseach Society meets in Kyoto with a public forum on September 3rd.

The figures: A total of 73 hotels with over 100 rooms were surveyed. The totals were around 14000 non-smoking rooms making up 22% of the total, and 510 non-smoking floors for 15% of the total floors.

Note: the status of hotel restaurants and bars was also investigated but the
results of that investigation is still to be tracked down.

Japan is decades behind Europe, let alone the USA, when it comes to non-smoking areas, but I wonder how the figures compare to hotels in the tourist centres in Europe and the USA? That might be an interesting point of comparison.