世論 What Japan Thinks

Over the first five days at the start of February, MyVoice asked their online monitor group about exercise.

Demographics

13,158 people successfully completed the online questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 19% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 13% in their fifties.

Note that walking in Q1 implies walking for the sake of exercise, not just walking through the station or on the way to work, unless it is deliberately for exercise, although the exact dividing line is unclear and up to the individual to choose. I must admit to being in the couch potato class; indeed recently due to changing the line I commute by, I’ve eliminated a 10 minute walk between home and the station. Plans to join a gym last Autumn were never realised.
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Following a link I spotted entitled Nearly Half Believe “Expert” Health Advice Dispensed on Boob Tube on Rising Sun of Nihon, I tracked down the original survey on health information dispensed by television programs, conducted by the Institute of Future Technology in the middle of February. The only demographic information available is that 1,055 people completed a web-based survey.

This survey was conducted after the Aru Aru Daijiten natto scandal blew up, so that should be kept in mind when viewing the results.
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Following Giganews picking up my emoticons translation, from the same article I learnt about a survey conducted by Nagase Beauty Care into the matter of working women and stress. The survey was conducted on the 16th and 17th of January by means of an internet-based questionnaire.

Demographics

500 women from all over the country working in public companies were interviewed, with 125 in their twenties, 125 in their thirties, 125 in their forties, and 125 in their fifties.

Not being a woman, I obviously cannot add my own opinions here!
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Over ten days in the middle of November last year the Cabinet Office Japan conducted an opinion poll regarding the matter of organ transplants. Of the 3,000 randomly selected people from all over the country, 57.6%, or 1,725 people, successfully completed the survey in face-to-face interviews. 52.9% were female, 9.8% in their twenties, 14.9% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, 19.4% in their sixties, and 19.2% aged seventy or older.

The final section discusses the issue that perhaps generates the most discussion in the foreign community, the legal ban on under 15 year-olds donating organs. This forces many parents with terminally ill infants to seek treatment overseas, usually in the USA. Note that Q14 specifically mentions this issue, thus perhaps slightly biasing the respondent towards selecting a pro-transplant stance.

It’s interesting to note that the answers in Q16 for respecting the wishes of a child are almost identical to those for respecting the wishes of an adult.
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After a quick search around the web, I found the official Japan Organ Transplant Network homepage. Send them an email at support+at+jotnw.or.jp with your name, address and number of cards you want, and they’ll pop them into the post for you. For those of you who work in locations with a number of English-speakers around, please order a handful and pin them to a handy notice board or the like.

I’ve applied for mine. If there are any other Japan-resident bloggers (including Japanese nationals, of course!) who wish to take part, or who have already filled in a donor card, please blog about it or give me a shout with your name and web page, and I’ll add you to a roll of honour here.

Japan Blogosphere Organ Donor Roll

your name here!

Ken Y-N

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Over ten days in the middle of November last year the Cabinet Office Japan conducted an opinion poll regarding the matter of organ transplants. Of the 3,000 randomly selected people from all over the country, 57.6%, or 1,725 people, successfully completed the survey in face-to-face interviews. 52.9% were female, 9.8% in their twenties, 14.9% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, 19.4% in their sixties, and 19.2% aged seventy or older.

Here, only 7.9% of the population have donor cards, and of those who have them, two in five are still to indicate their choices on the card, making it less than one in twenty of the population from whom organs can be taken for transplant. As a comparison, in the UK 23% of the population are registered donors.

The questions on differentiating between brain death and actual heart stopping death in Q10 to Q13 are especially interesting. This suggests that the Japanese bascially see brain death the same way as cardiac death. Interestingly, the term “brain death” was not elaborated upon within this survey as it is a more severe state than persistent vegetative state which is perhaps what people associate with the term; I, for one, was unaware of the distinction.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Over ten days in the middle of November last year the Cabinet Office Japan conducted an opinion poll regarding the matter of organ transplants. Of the 3,000 randomly selected people from all over the country, 57.6%, or 1,725 people, successfully completed the survey in face-to-face interviews. 52.9% were female, 9.8% in their twenties, 14.9% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, 19.4% in their sixties, and 19.2% aged seventy or older.

This is another subject that generates a lot of comment from foreigners, but up until now I have never seen any hard figures on the situation. I hope my readers too can get as much out of this data as I did. I also hope my translation is accurate enough!

Since this is quite a lengthy survey, it will be published in three parts.
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UPDATE: marxy beat me to the punch!

Just a day after my posting of the top 100 natto-related searches, I see that Hakkutsu! Aruaru Daijiten’s producers have admitted to making up the whole story!

Some of the lies and distortions of the truth made by the program included:

1. Some people in the USA did lose weight on a diet program based around boosting DHEA levels, but the before and after photos the program used to illustrate weight loss were of totally different people!

2. A foreign professor from Temple University in Japan was interviewed in English and he did actually make the translated comments attributed to him, but thanks to selective editing, some of his caveats or qualifications of his statements were omitted.

3. They said that two of the eight people they tried the natto diet out on saw drops in their cholesterol levels, but in fact their levels were never measured.

4. They claimed that people eating just one pack of natto per day had lower isoflavone levels than those eating two packs, but they in fact just invented these numbers.

5. Similarly, DHEA levels in the blood of their eight volunteers were also invented!

DIMSDRIVE Research recently released the results of a very timely opinion poll on the topic of norovirus, a bug that can cause a rather nasty dose of gastroenteritis. Between the 20th and 25th of December 6,533 members of their monitor group successfully completed an internet-based survey. 44.3% of the group was male, 1.1% in their teens, 16.1% in their twenties, 36.9% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 13.4% in their fifties, and 5.4% aged sixty or older.

I’ll give another plug to Japundit’s advice on simple measures to reduce the risk of infection, and note that although it is highly contageous and pretty nasty when it breaks out, is does soon pass, after perhaps two or three days. Mind you, it is better not to catch it at all rather than just hoping you can ride it out, and if you live with other people, the chance of you passing it on to them is rather high, I suspect.
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At the start of this month MyVoice conducted a survey into functional sweets and other confectionaries. 13,384 people from their monitor group successfully completed a private online survey. 54% of the sample was female, 3% in their teens, 21% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 24% in their forties, and 13% in their fifties.

I chew xylitol-based gum every night after dinner, but was surprised to see how few others were daily consumers. My wife did try the chocolate diet with no success, however. The argument is that cacao-rich chocolate (75% or more) has very little sugar but lots of fibre, plus the caffine boost might have something to do with raising your metabolic rate. However, you are only supposed to eat 20 grams or so after each meal, and the high levels of caffine and other constituents can seriously adversely affect a significant percentage of the population, so I cannot recommend it to anyone.
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