世論 What Japan Thinks

This week’s Silly Sunday looks at love in Japanese high schools, in particular people’s personal memories from there, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 15th of July 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.9% of the sample were female, 10.3% in their teens and 89.7% in their twenties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, or check out my weekly newsletter. Thanks for visiting!

If you’ve recently fallen out of love, my sympathies and please stop reading now! Otherwise, enjoy with me today’s Silly Sunday with goo Ranking where we look at what people do when their hearts get broken, for both boys and men and girls and women, as the sample was restricted to the under thirties.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 15th of July 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.9% of the sample were female, 10.3% in their teens and 89.7% in their twenties. 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’m not sure if the “do nothing” option means to fall into a catatonic state or to just shrug your shoulders and get on with life, although I would like to believe that it is the first of the two!

Photo from нσвσ on flickr. Just in case you can’t read, the kanji is “heart”.
Read the rest of this entry »

This Sunday it’s another look at gender differences, with goo Ranking reporting on what wives wish their husbands would do for them once in a while, and the reverse, what husbands wish their wives would do for them once in a while.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of June 2008 1,014 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 6.5% in their teens, 14.5% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 8.8% 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.

For me, I already do 1 (well, I bake), 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 (more precisely, I help with the hanging out), 10, she says I don’t do 11 enough, the second 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, she won’t trust me to do 24, 25, both 26s, 28 and 30 more than once in a while. I’d only want her to do 28, but not for a selfish reason. She doesn’t do ironing, but I’ve noticed in Japan ironing is not that popular an activity with anyone.
Read the rest of this entry »

Well, not me personally, but what Japanese themselves like to hear other people comment on, both for women and men. As usual, this was goo Ranking looking at this subject.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of June 2008 1,014 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 6.5% in their teens, 14.5% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 8.8% 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.

For me, it has to be intelligence and for loving my home life more than work, although I’ve never heard anyone in Japan praise me for that…
Read the rest of this entry »

Your second dose of silly Sunday surveys for today! This time looking at what trivial things people end up quarreling with their other half over, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23th of May 2008 1,072 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 50% of the sample were male, 5.7% in their teens, 12.9% in their twenties, 31.8% in their thirties, 27.5% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 10.8% 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’m too laid-back to start arguments (or too scared to try…), but from the woman’s perspective number one is probably the worst one for setting the wife off, and I know better than to get involved in arguments about number ten!
Read the rest of this entry »

You may remember last month I published a survey on what makes Japanese women run a mile, so now it’s time to look with goo Ranking at what female actions make men run a mile at drinking parties.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% aged sixty or older. Obviously only the male 45.6%, or 499 people, answered this particular question. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

The most obvious difference between this and the previous survey is groping! It was the top hate for women, but the bottom one for men. Another notable exception from the men’s list is the number 7 from the women’s list, pestering someone for their phone number! My top two would have to be smoking and poor table manners.
Read the rest of this entry »

From today, normal service will be resumed at 世論 What Japan Thinks after the New Year holidays. So, without further ado, let’s look at the first Silly Sunday survey of the New Year; here goo Ranking looked at break-up reasons people just couldn’t get their heads around, covering both what men hear from their girlfriends and what women heard from their boyfriends.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of November 2007 1,101 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample was female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 10.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score reported is the relative number of votes each choice got, not the percentage of the sample that chose each option.

I’ll not relate any personal stories here, but I did once fix up a mate with a friend of my wife’s (thankfully she doesn’t speak English so she won’t be reading this blog!) but he suddenly chickened out, so we had to tell her that he had been transferred, which always struck me as a hopelessly transparent excuse
Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve looked before in detail at handsomeness, but here is a slightly different take from goo Ranking; the top twenty ways Japanese fathers can retain that certain air of attractiveness, not only from their wives’ and children’s perspectives, but also from the point of view of female (and male too) colleagues and other associates. The fieldwork for the survey was conducted over the 24th and 25th of October 2007 amongst the members of the goo Research online monitor panel.

The subject for this one was a little difficult to translate; perhaps if there was a female version (and if there is one, I will definitely translate!) I could have used the expression “Yummy Mummy”, but here I was at a bit of a loss to come up with a suitable term. The Japanese expression was 父親でもモテる人, oyaji demo moteru hito.
Read the rest of this entry »

With the 忘年会, bounenkai, end-of-year party season upon us and many of us perhaps having headed to our first one tonight flush with our winter bonuses, let’s take a quick look with goo Ranking at what male actions make women run a mile at drinking parties. The fieldwork for the survey was conducted over the 24th and 25th of October 2007 amongst female members of the goo Research monitor group. Note that the vast majority of activities here would result in the guy being slapped with a sexual harrassment suit in the West, and probably also in Japan, although the law is not as frequently invoked here.

Number 8 is perhaps a bit strange and culturally specific, and although thankfully I’ve not witnessed it myself, apparently after a quantity of alcohol Japanese men sometimes do remove their shirts or more. May these be the only undies you whip off for a young lady in the pub!

Anyway, I hope none of my readers got up to or suffered from the activities described within! You may want to cross-reference with previous survey on drunken old git behaviour.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s this week’s Silly Sunday survey. This time it was goo Ranking looking at aspects of expressing interest, or detecting if interest was being expressed. There was what men think is the most effective way to go for the kill and what women think is the most effective way to go for the kill; then what women’s actions men think indicates they may have a chance and what men’s actions women think indicates they may have a chance. I hope you get the idea, but if not, just read on and all may become clearer! The surveys were conducted between the 25th and 27th of September 2007.
Read the rest of this entry »