世論 What Japan Thinks

Recently MyVoice investigated the subject of confectionery consumption amongst its panel of monitors. As a cross-reference, last year MyVoice looked at cheering oneself up with sweets.

Demographics

Over the first five days of April 2009 15,582 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% were in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 35% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 19% after fifty or older.

I’m surprised at the relatively low figure for spending in Q6, especially given a quarter eat sweets daily – I wonder if this means people only counting treating themselves explicitly to sweets, rather than also adding in purchases of treats for children that they eat together?
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Recently, iShare looked in detail at how people view celebrities on television, but as it features a lot of names that may not be very well-known to my average reader (nor even to me!), I’ll skip over most of the survey and highlight one very frequent complaint from many foreigners about food programs here:

Why do they all scream “Delicious!” all the time?

Watch any Japanese variety program with a food section and you’ll soon see that every mouthful of even the most mundane dish sends the gourmand (or just plain old glutton) into orgasms of delight, leaving many foreigners screaming “What’s the point?” at the television, especially as I at least find the table manners rather off-putting.

One of the survey’s questions was seeing which one celebrity eating made you hungry, and number one choice was Hidehiko Ishizuka, or Ishi-chan, or the “Ma-iu” guy, depending on how familiar you are with Japanese C-list celebrities! He is a rather sweaty and obese lump with a cavernous maw, yet one third of men and one quarter of women chose him as the person who gets their stomach rumbling. Second up was professional big eater Gal Sone, a waif of a woman who wears far too much make-up and eats by… ah, even thinking about how to describe her turns my stomach! 6.7% of men and 14.4% of women picked her. Conversely, and happily from my point of view, 48.1% of men and 39.0% of women had no-one who made them hungry.

For those who chose someone, they were asked why. The top reason was the way they ate made the food look delicious, with over nine in ten saying so. Next, just 13.1% liked the person, 9.9% felt their comments while eating were easy to understand, 7.7% said seeing the person eat made them want to eat, and just 2.7% found their comments trustworthy!

Due to the lack of vegetarian options I never actually eaten an instant ramen cup noodle here in Japan, but according to this recent survey from MyVoice into cup noodles (their second time, the first having been in December 2006) I’m very much in the minority as usual.

Demographics

Over the first five days of March 2009 15,584 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 19% aged fifty or older.

I live just two stops up the tracks from the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, but despite that I am still to visit! One fun feature is that you can make your own original cup which they present to you sealed in an over-large air-filled pillow, so every time I see one on the train I am reminded of my failure to travel just 10 minutes to see the place!
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This survey from MyVoice into rice cookers is their second look at the topic, the first having been conducted two years ago and translated by me then.

Demographics

Over the first five days of February 2009 15,419 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

Two years ago I mentioned that the survey omitted to discuss just using a pan or a traditional pot counted as a rice cooker, so I was pleased to see that this time in Q1 they asked not just about electric cookers, but also about other methods of cooking rice. I’m far too modest, and I know I’d be lying anyway, to claim that it was all thanks to this blog that they amended their question!

Oh, and I have a Squidoo page about Japanese rice cookers that occasionally makes me a few cents.
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Winter may be almost over, but the surveys on the season are not! This recent one from MyVoice looked at the tastes of winter.

Demographics

Over the first five days of February 2008 15,230 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were male, 2% in their teens, 13% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

I don’t really feel winter – down where I live it never really gets below freezing and the weather is closer to the end of autumn in Scotland – perhaps because the leaves fall off the tree about two months later I’m out of sync, and now with the plum trees coming out in flower I’m into spring already. Talking of when spring starts reminds me of a recent post from Shibuya246 on when Japanese think spring starts.

The top taste for me is also satsuma (mikan in Japanese), which has an interesting tale behind why it is so-called. The wife of an American diplomat in the 19th century who introduced it to America apparently confused it with the old provice Satsuma which was a producer of said fruit. It also appears there are three towns in the USA named Satsuma, in Alabama, Florida and Louisiana.
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Like I did, you’re probably wondering what on earth a Range Up product is. It is another made-up Japanese-style English (和製英語, wasei eigo) that means microwave-ready food that can be stored at room temperature. Range is from the Japanese for microwave oven, denshi range, and Up is probably from heat up. So, with the definitions out the way, let up proceed to this look by MyVoice at said Range Up products.

Demographics

Over the first five days of January 2009 13,771 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 13% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 31% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

I’ve not eaten these kinds of dishes myself, in fact I can’t remember seeing them ever, although I did have a friend who swore by the individual portions of rice, as they were just right for single people who couldn’t be bothered with the whole bother of a rice cooker. In fact, one will not that rice-based dishes feature very prominantly in Q2.
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Today’s survey is from not just Japan, but also from China, in a wide-ranging survey from Gallup International conducted into the matters of tourism, food safety, the environment, and the relationship between the two countries.

Demographics

For Japan, between the 5th and 17th of November 2008 1,200 people aged between 15 and 79 were chosen from all over the country at random from residents information and answered the survey either face-to-face or were left with the questionnaire. For China, between the 13th and 19th of November 2008 1,266 people between the ages of 18 and 59 from the 15 largest cities in China completed an internet-based questionnaire.

In the environmental questions in Q5, perhaps surprisingly China is more concerned than Japan about them, but when one looks at their particular worries, Chinese citizens are worried about the immediate threat from airborne and water pollution, this result being reflected in their distrust of their own food products.

I would like to visit the Great Wall of China and see the Terracotta warriors in their home settings, but I worry about being able to find veggie food and about the general level of hygene in the country.
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Although the topic of this survey from DIMSDRIVE Research Inc was fish, the most interesting figure for me was some data to allow me to estimate the number of vegetarians in Japan.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 16th of Octoer 2008 9,524 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.5% of the sample were male, 1.3% in their teens, 13.7% in their twenties, 34.% in their thirties, 31.2% in their forties, 14.5% in their fifties, and 5.1% aged sixty or older.

The vegetarian numbers can be derived from first noticing that 0.7% don’t eat fish according to Q2, then 2.7% of these 0.7% say they don’t eat fish because they are vegetarians, meaning that a whole 8 people from the original 9,524, or 0.08% of the sample, which makes a mere 10,000 vegetarians in the whole of Japan! Of course, monks would inflate the figures, although note that the average local priest is not averse to even grilled beef!

Note that here fish refers to fish only, not other beasts of the sea like octopus, squid, prawns, shellfish, or indeed whale.
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A while back I took a look at bad chopsticks habits, but this time goo Ranking expanded the field to cover bad table manners people just can’t break. However, this time we didn’t get a breakdown by sex.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 26th of September 2008 1,044 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 5.8% in their teens, 12.7% in their twenties, 32.3% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 12.3% in their fifties, and 9.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I occasionally do 3, I must admit, and at home I always lick the yoghurt lid, and my wife gets annoyed at me sometimes when I don’t do triangle eating. Other than that I claim to be free of all the other habits!
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Just a quick note that Danny Choo recently posted on cooking habits of Japanese men as reported on by Macromill via the Nikkei Shimbun.

I may translate this survey in full in the near future as I do find the reported 50% who cook every week quite a bit higher than what I would expect, so I want to see how the figures were derived.