世論 What Japan Thinks

This time it is iShare taking a look at scheduled power cuts, finding that not surprisingly, most people were glad to get back to regular power, but a lower than I might have thought majority were opposed to them restarting in the summer.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 11th of April 2011 922 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 2.3% in their twenties, 45.0% in their thirties, and 52/7% in their forties.

If this summer is as hot as last summer, and last summer’s power consumption patterns are repeated, the Tokyo area will be short about 1 gigawatt of power generation capability. However, there are a lot of moves afoot, such as vending machines cutting their refrigeration to consume about 30% less power, pachinko parlours shutting down their neon signs, and companies everywhere getting rid of unnecessary lighting, although from the images I’ve seen on TV it does seem a bit excessive, such as cinemas turning off the lighting on street-level posters (perhaps A2 in size?), making it look as if they are actually shut, all for a less than a kilowatt saved.
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DIMSDRIVE Research are the latest company to publish the results of their survey into The Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 28th of March 2011 9,948 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 56.4% of the sample were male, 0.6% in their teens, 6.5% in their twenties, 23.5% in their thirties, 33.7% in their forties, 21.4% in their fifties, and 14.3% aged sixty or older.

There are a number of questions related to power cuts; however, since the survey was conducted TEPCO has announced that they have got the power supply situation under control, and there will be no more scheduled power cuts, although we just have to wait and see what the summer will hold for us.

Although I’m far away from the affected area, getting hold of water was the biggest problem. Almost all the bottled water was sold out, barring the fizzy stuff like Perrier. I don’t eat pot noodles and only the very occasional boil-in-the-bag curry, but these also disappeared off the shelves in a flash. Currently the biggest problem is that many yoghurt factories have been knocked out, but fortunately our nearest supermarket has a brand from the local area, a really rich and creamy one that will be replacing our previous more expensive mass-produced brand.
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With Renho, the minister for power cuts, and television advertisements scolding us about using electricity due to ongoing shortage of generation facilities in the Tokyo and northward caused by a slight problem you might have hear something about, iShare took a look at if and how people were saving electricity.

Demographics

Over the 29th and 30th of March 2011, 1,697 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.3% of the sample were male, 3.6% in their twenties, 47.0% in their thirties, and 49.4% in their forties.

Every time my mother emails me she always comments about how stoic and resolute the people in the affected areas are when they are interviewed on television, so I’m sure she’ll be impressed by Q3B, showing that over a third of these in unaffected areas are saving electricity too. Areas south of about Mount Fuji or so are on 60 Hertz, so we cannot donate much electricity up to the 50 Hertz north, so there is no logical reason for us to cut back, but for reasons of moral support we are.
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