世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2]

The Cabinet Office Japan recently conducted a survey looking at diplomacy in Japan. This is a regular yearly survey, and last year I translated it in two parts, here and here.

Demographics

3,000 adult members of the Japanese public were selected at random from resident registries to be interviewed face-to-face between the 9th and 19th of October 2008. From the sample, 1,826 people, or 60.9%, were available and completed the survey. 54.1% of the sample were female, 10.0% were in their twenties, 15.9% in their thirties, 15.6% in their forties, 20.3% in their fifties, 21.9% in their sixties, and 16.3% aged seventy or older. Additionally, 4.6% had lived overseas for more than three months, another 57.3% had travelled overseas, and 38.1% had never been overseas.

The section on North Korea was conducted before the recent news that wouldn’t have surprised many westerns following the story, namely that North Korea finally had enough about Japan going on about the abductees and have said they’ll refuse to recognise Japan at the upcoming 6-party (or should that now be 5-party?) talks due to this issue, a stance that I must agree with, quite frankly. However, Q3 shows the abductees is still the most important issue for the Japanese, but I’d love to see a more detailed survey on why.
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[part 1] [part 2]

The Cabinet Office Japan recently conducted a survey looking at diplomacy in Japan. This is a regular yearly survey, and last year I translated it in two parts, here and here.

Demographics

3,000 adult members of the Japanese public were selected at random from resident registries to be interviewed face-to-face between the 9th and 19th of October 2008. From the sample, 1,826 people, or 60.9%, were available and completed the survey. 54.1% of the sample were female, 10.0% were in their twenties, 15.9% in their thirties, 15.6% in their forties, 20.3% in their fifties, 21.9% in their sixties, and 16.3% aged seventy or older. Additionally, 4.6% had lived overseas for more than three months, another 57.3% had travelled overseas, and 38.1% had never been overseas.

If you have been reading Japan news you may have seen some coverage of this poll, although they only dipped into the first two questions below for the article. There’s a lot of good information in part 2 that has been almost completely ignored by the foreign media, so be sure to check that out too.
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If you have been following the Japanese blogs or news wires this week, you surely must have seen headlines like – well, I thought I saw headlines, but they now seem to have disappeared! Anyway, there was quite a bit of fuss about 53% of Japanese seeing public safety problems due to an increase in tourism, but what is the truth behind that headline? Read the full details from the survey by the Cabinet Office Japan into Tourism Nation Japan and the Japan Tourism Agency.

Demographics

3,000 adults from all over the country were randomly selected from resident registers, and they were visited for face-to-face interviews between the 16th and 26th of October 2008. 1,853 people, or 61.8%, were available and completed the questionnaire. A breakdown by age and sex was not presented, however.

Note that the questions below were part of a bigger survey on other unreported topics.

Q3 is the question that has sparked the controversy, with the negative answers being singled out. My personal opinion is that since the increase in tourism is mostly from Korea and China, countries with none-too-friendly a view of Japan, and the Chinese especially have a reputation for being ill-mannered, and they are the biggest foreign criminal element in Japan, I can see one reason why the figure is high. Of course, one has to contrast that with the equally large percentage who expect the increase in tourists to decrease such prejudice through mutual understanding.
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After the Second World War an undecided territorial issue between the USSR/Russia and Japan was the fate of the four most southern of the Northern Territories, as they are known in Japan, or the Kuril Isles to the Russians. This survey from the Cabinet Office Japan (so obviously there is an inherent bias towards the official government position) looked at what the Japanese think about the Northern Territories issue.

Demographics

3,000 members of the public aged 20 or over were randomly selected for face-to-face interviews between the 9th and 19th of October 2008. 1,826 people, or 60.9%, agreed to take part. Sex and age demographics were not given, but since Cabinet Office surveys are conducted face-to-face they tend to catch an older demographic.

As background on the issue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a pamphlet describing the Japanese position, Gregory Clarke wrote an article on this for the Japan Times a few years ago, and Russia Today looked at the new Japanese curriculum that will start teaching that the isles are Japanese.
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With the recent news about a ring tunes site being busted for offering illegal downloads, a site that apparently almost all middle and high-school children know, this survey from the Cabinet Office Japan looking into intellectual property is well-timed. Suspiciously well-timed.

Demographics

3,000 members of the public were randomly selected from resident registers, and face-to-face interviews took place between the 11th and 21st of September 2008. 1,770 people, or 59.0%, were available and agreed to be interviewed. The demographic information has not been made public yet, but as these Cabinet Office surveys are usually face-to-face interviews they tend to catch an older demographic, as can be seen in Q4 where over half the sample never or almost never access the internet.

This is quite a relevant survey in other ways too as I read just today an article on Global Voices Online about new copyright protection laws being proposed in Japan, where I read much to my surprise that it is not actually illegal to download copyright-infringing material, even if one is aware that the contents are not correctly licensed!

There is also no attempt to differentiate between legal and illegal free contents, just anything privately shared must be bad.
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Recently the Cabinet Office Japan sponsored a very detailed survey into the public’s perception of public transport safety.

Demographics

3,000 people over the age of twenty were randomly selected from resident lists from all over the country. Between the 24th of July and 3rd of August 2008 face-to-face interviews took place. 39.3% refused or were not resident at that address, etc, so in total 1,822 people completed the survey. 53.9% of the sample were female, 8.1% in their twenties, 14.6% in their thirties, 17.5% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, 21.5% in their sixties, 13.0% in their seventies, and 4.4% aged eighty or older.

In Q8 I find the actions classified as “unsafe behaviour” quite surprising. Dashing into closing train doors and getting stuck in the door is dangerous, but checking in at the last minute is hardly unsafe, just impolite at worse.

Talking of unsafe behaviour, I flew trans-Pacific with NorthWest a couple of days ago in an exit seat with two of the crew opposite, but one of them grabbed her mobile and started checking her email during the final approach! They then went as far as to tut quietly at a passenger whose mobile rung as the plane taxied.
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In Japan adulthood is 20 years old, but there is a bit of a debate going on at the moment regarding changing this. A recent survey conducted by the Cabinet Office Japan into the age of majority looked at some of the issues surrounding this topic.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 27th of July 2008 5,000 randomly selected members of the public over the aged of 18 were interviewed face-to-face. 3,060 people were successfully interviewed; 53.2% of the sample were female, 1.4% were aged 18 or 19, 8.8% were in their twenties, 14.9% in their thirties, 17.8% in their forties, 20.9% in their fifties, 20.8% in their sixties, and 15.4% aged seventy or older. 75.0% were married, 9.5% divorced or widowed, and 15.5% not married. 10.4% had pre-school children, 15.4% elementary or middle-school children, 6.9% high school, 7.0% university or college, etc, 0.5% post graduate, and 50.2% had children finished with education and now employed or otherwise. Finally, 24.2% did not have any children.

This is a very interesting survey that perhaps reinforces prejudices or stereotypes that we hold of the Japanese. The most surprising figure for me was the 10% or more who thought the law is the law, so as an individual citizen one cannot think of changing it. However, if you asked similar questions in other countries, what sort of figure would you get there?
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This rather epic survey from the Cabinet Office Japan will be split into multiple parts and posted over the next few days. Here they looked at awareness of society, covering four main areas of country and society, the state of society today, evaluation of government, and how society works. A translation of a similar survey from last year may be found here and two years ago is here.

Demographics

10,000 people aged 20 or older were randomly selected from the entire Japanese population to take part in the survey. From that group, 5,494 people agreed to take part in face-to-face interviews conducted between the 7th and 24th of February 2008. 53.8% of the sample was female, 8.1% in their twenties, 15.3% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 21.3% in their fifties, 21.9% in their sixties, 16.5% in their seventies, and 3.1% aged eighty or older. 74.7% were married, 11.8% were divorced or widowed, and 13.5% were unmarried.

The depression continues in this section, with Q13 dissatisfaction with the government’s KY-ness (空気が読めない, Kuuki ga Yomenai, inability to sense the mood), and Q14 showing pretty much all aspects of life not looking good and Q15 highlighting the ones particularly decaying. However, at least the final section on children was bright in outlook.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This rather epic survey from the Cabinet Office Japan will be split into multiple parts and posted over the next few days. Here they looked at awareness of society, covering four main areas of country and society, the state of society today, evaluation of government, and how society works. A translation of a similar survey from last year may be found here and two years ago is here.

Demographics

10,000 people aged 20 or older were randomly selected from the entire Japanese population to take part in the survey. From that group, 5,494 people agreed to take part in face-to-face interviews conducted between the 7th and 24th of February 2008. 53.8% of the sample was female, 8.1% in their twenties, 15.3% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 21.3% in their fifties, 21.9% in their sixties, 16.5% in their seventies, and 3.1% aged eighty or older. 74.7% were married, 11.8% were divorced or widowed, and 13.5% were unmarried.

Q6 and Q7 are a pretty depressing pair of statistics, with only peace showing any degree of optimism, but social breakdown bearing down on many people. Also, Q8 shows that people are more proud of the past rather than the present Japan.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This rather epic survey from the Cabinet Office Japan will be split into multiple parts and posted over the next few days. Here they looked at awareness of society, covering four main areas of country and society, the state of society today, evaluation of government, and how society works. A translation of a similar survey from last year may be found here and two years ago is here.

Demographics

10,000 people aged 20 or older were randomly selected from the entire Japanese population to take part in the survey. From that group, 5,494 people agreed to take part in face-to-face interviews conducted between the 7th and 24th of February 2008. 53.8% of the sample was female, 8.1% in their twenties, 15.3% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 21.3% in their fifties, 21.9% in their sixties, 16.5% in their seventies, and 3.1% aged eighty or older. 74.7% were married, 11.8% were divorced or widowed, and 13.5% were unmarried.

The results for love of one’s country (not patriotism, which is a different word in both English and Japanese) in Q1 and Q2 were interesting, but Q3 was surprising that so large a minority thought that looking out for themselves was more important. I’d have liked to have seen a follow-up question to investigate why people chose each of their answers.

Q4SQ is perhaps misleading to the casual reader; over 40% take part in environmental activities, but as most large cities require separation of different kinds of rubbish, the surprise to me is more that the figure is so low.
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