世論 What Japan Thinks

Food safety is a big topic here in Japan, with the memory of poison gyoza fresh in many people’s mind, and raw vegetables from China in particular shunned by many consumers. To see what exactly is happening, Nippon Research Center recently conducted a survey into food safety issues.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 14th of April 2008 1,200 people were randomly chosen based on the population distribution from the 2005 census data. 200 sample points were chosen and from each point 6 people agreed to face-to-face interviews. 50.4% of the sample were female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.1% in their twenties, 17.9% in their thirties, 15.3% in their forties, 18.4% in their fifties, 15.9% in their sixties, and 11.2% in their seventies.

I’d like to say a quick hello to any readers who might have joined me from Slashfood, who have been kind enough to cover a couple of articles from me in the last few weeks. This one is just to show I do serious food topics too!

Not surprisingly, China’s image is horrendous, but there is one particular Chinese export that people do not seem to mind, or at least don’t think about it when purchasing. That product is Oolong and other teas, and one new tea in particular, Suntory’s Black Oolong Tea, advertised as one product that canhelp in the fight against metabolic syndrome, has in the two years since launch sold round about 75 billion yen’s worth (around 750 million US dollars) of tea according to a television programme I saw at the weekend, representing close to half a billion 350 ml bottles! Its adverts unashamedly features subtitled Chinese actors eating Chinese food. Click through to view the television commercials.

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Getting the latest (allegedly) healthy food introduced on shows like Aru-Aru Daijiten can result in the product being sold out not just the day after, but for weeks on end. The biggest effect I remember was when they introduced CoQ10, resulting in Nature Made being out of stock and on back order for months, and since the program (about 18 months ago, I think) I have never again seen Nature Made’s CoQ10 in stores in Japan, although apparently they do still make it. This survey on health foods seems more geared towards foodstuffs than supplements, though.

Nippon Research Center Ltd asked 2,200 people of both sexes, of whom 1,165 cooperated with the survey, aged between 15 and 79 from all around the country.
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