世論 What Japan Thinks

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.

世論 (seron) is the Japanese word for public opinion. 世論調査 (seron chousa) is public opinion poll. “Seron” can also be spelt “yoron” in certain circumstances that I’m not absolutely clear on, but for the purposes of this web site “seron” it is! The web address is seronchousa, however, as seron was already reserved.

I started this web site as there is a definite lack of sites that collate Japanese public opinion… ack, that’s the sanitised version! The real reason is that I want to practice my Japanese to English translation skills, and that statistics and their interpretation interest me. Look up a Japanese news site like Japan Today and you’ll often see new public opinion polls (or just numbers seeming randomly plucked out of the air!) presented with zero analysis of what they mean. Usually the lack of analysis is down to the Kyodo News Agency just providing the most basic of stories, but even when one reads a printed newspaper with a longer, more detailed story there is no attempt made to analyse what the numbers really mean.

There was, for instance, a story at the start of this year (sorry, can’t find a link!) about how something like 50% of Japanese said they used child seats. In my totally unscientific experience, however, a figure closer to 5% would seem more believable, as most kids run around cars freely, as far as I can see. Why this huge discrepancy between what a casual observer might see and how people answered? No-one in the press,
as far as I could see, took this matter on. In this blog, in addition to the basic translation of the survey, I’ll add my own comment when appropriate.

A small note about the translation: as I am unaware of the exact legal status of translations of articles (direct translations of novels are copyright to the translator, but they are derivative works, so the translator cannot legally distribute without permission) I will try to avoid too literal a translation. Regardless of the law, plagiary is morally dishonest, regardless of whether or not imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Facts and figures cannot be copyrighted, I believe, so these are OK to reprint, however.

If you search Google for “Japan public opinion” currently the first hit is an interesting academic site collating various polls, but the latest survey is from 1999, it seems, so it’s quite a bit out of date. I hope I can make this site a popular destination for this search term and perhaps even a useful stopping-off point for those who need some numbers on Japan.

To finish, if you have a survey you would like translated (perhaps you saw a short unsatisfactory English article somewhere and would like to know what the original survey was), or have a pet subject you think I should investigate, drop me a message and I’ll see what I can do. I’ll try to satisfy small requests or fun requests relatively promptly. If you have a professional or other serious need for an accurate translation, be it public opinion related or not, drop me a message too and we’ll see what sort of business arrangement we can come to.