世論 What Japan Thinks

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.
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goo Ranking recently published another rather entertaining survey, this time on where people would least like to go on a first date to, with both male and female versions published.

As usual for goo Ranking, there is no demographic information available about the sample size, only that the votes were gathered between the 19th and 20th of April from members of the goo Research monitor group. The top voted location was awarded 100 points, and the others awarded a score representing the relative percentage of votes they got.
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Spring is sprung and the sap is rising, and young thoughts turn to love, so let’s enjoy a recent survey from goo Research, conducted between the 27th and 29th of March 2007 amongst 555 single youths, most in their twenties, from all over Japan, on the matters of love and laughter. Note that the male-female split is not reported.

It does seem a rather disjoint pair of topics, but the answers are rather interesting. I do find it amusing that half as many women are in love than men, which perhaps prompts the question “what exactly does ‘love’ mean to you?” Alternatively, perhaps it is the unwillingness of men to commit themselves to a serious relationship, or just that women have stronger passions than men.

Note that the word used in the survey for being in love is 恋愛, ren’ai.

Let’s get a little personal, ack, no, let’s not get too personal, as I’ll sound far too soppy! I’ll just say it was common values that was the main spark for me, as well as that special magic, and it didn’t take too long (a month and a half?) for me to realise that we would marry. Oh, and we met through an “Other” method.
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Let’s spend a romantic moment or two together looking at a survey from goo Ranking conducted back towards the end of September into what pair of items unmarried couples would want to go shopping for with their lover, for both women and men. You hopefully know all about the lack of demographics and how the scoring works already.

As for me, maybe I’m just a tight-fisted git, but I always enjoy buying mobile straps together. Currently my phone features the following pair items: one 50th anniversary Miffy (actually, her brown dog), three Tottoros in a chain, one Hello Kitty Kobe Airport opening memorial Jumbo Kitty, and one Hello Kitty Kobe Weather-Cock House Weather Kitty Cock.
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Yesterday we looked at St Valentine’s Day in Japan; today we’ll move on to White Day. Last year, MyVoice surveyed 13,295 members (5,573 or 42% male) of their internet community to find out what they thought of the uniquely Japanese White Day. The age breakdown for this survey was 5% in their teens, 23% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 22% in their forties, and 11% aged fifty and over.

White Day is a uniquely Japanese event, as far as I am aware. After Valentine’s Day ended up as a day for only women to give presents for men, in order to redress the balance, and of course increase sales of chocolates, White Day was dreamed up, the chance for men to buy a present, usually white chocolate, thus the name, in return for any they may have received the month before.
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Since Valentine’s Day is looming large on the horizon, let’s take a look at a survey of the MyVoice community about how their Valentine’s day was last year. They received 15,003 replies to their internet questionnaire, with 57% or 8,571 of the respondents female. Almost 40% of the sample size was in their thirties, and in addition 5% were teenagers, 24% in their twenties, 22% in their forties, and 11% aged fifty and over.

First, a quick background on St Valentine’s Day in Japan; on this day, the women buy men presents only – the men’s turn comes around on White Day, March 14th (and I’ll be presenting a translation of a similar survey on that topic presently) – but they do not buy for their love only, they should also buy for their bosses, colleagues, and others, this being another example of the formalised tipping that goes on in Japan.
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