世論 What Japan Thinks

Outside two of the railways stations in Osaka yesterday they were handing out census forms to find out about rail use in the city. There is an online option for submissions, but the web site seems to be broken! Note that the URL uses the English path /railcensus/ rather than Japanese /tetsudochousa/ or the like. I’ll be keen to see the results of this survey!

The questions are as follows:

Q1: What is the purpose of your first railway journey today?

• Commute to work
• Commute to school
• Work-related travel
• Private
• Returning home

Q2: When did you set out on this trip?

Q2A: What means of transport were used to get to the first railway station?

Q2B: When did you arrive at the first railway station on your trip?

Q3: For each train taken, please record the railway line name, the start and end station, the class of train (local, express, reserved seat or bullet train), whether you used a commutation pass, and if it was crowded or over-crowded.

Q4: When did you arrive at the final railway station on your trip?

Q4A: What means of transport were used to get to your ultimate destination?

Q5: For your second railway journey of the day, please record the similar details to those above.

Q6: If your second trip of the day did not take you home, and you didn’t return home by some other means, please record the start and end times and start and end station of your trip home.

Following on from the recent census, there are some additional questions that need to be answered by all foreigners living in Japan. I urge all readers to urgently visit this page and complete the survey! (*^_^*)

Also, sorry, but real life’s been a bit busy so updates are thin on the ground!

We had a visit today from the census representitive for next month’s census. The questions are mostly very simple – age, place of work, size of house (Japan has a target to within 20 years get the average family living space up from the current about 50 square metres to 100 square metres. Hoever, there are very few flats available over 100 square metres, at least not without getting into funny money, and even many houses barely top that in living area), hours worked per month, etc. The one problematic one I saw was there is a nationality box, Japanese or other, with a write-in area. All children from an international marriage are dual nationality until aged 20, so what do they tick? I saw on The Community mailing list the prevailing opinion was to tick both boxes and let them sort it out. One person did phone city hall, and their advice was to select Japanese for the kids, but that just hides the issue. Many international children may have special schooling requirements, especially if they have moved back from overseas.

On a lighter note, there is no box for religion, so we cannot repeat the efforts in New Zealand and the UK where people selected Jedi-ism as they religion. Perhaps instead for country of origin we can write in Endor (but that’s the Ewok land, isn’t it? Ohh ‘eck, I’m no Staar Wars geek!)

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!