世論 What Japan Thinks

After skipping a day yesterday (I had the runs from a white chocolate overdose, if you must know!) here we go with the third of three mini-surveys; this time it is iShare looking at what not to put on your rice.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of January 2011 413 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 31.0% in their twenties, 31.5% in their thirties, and 37.5% in their forties.

Although this is a single answer survey, a favourite rice warning for foreigners in Japan, not to put soy sauce on top, gets a big fat zero, and I’m glad to see that over a third are relaxed enough not to be bothered.

Here’s a disgusting rice topping from The Infatuated on flickr:

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Rice has the image as the main staple of the Japanese dining table, so this recent survey from goo Research looked at rice and eating habits to find out the truth behind the stereotype.

Demographic

Between the 15th and 18th of November 2010 1,295 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were female, 16.4% in their teens, 16.8% in their twenties, 16.3% in their thirties, 16.8% in their forties, 16.8% in their fifties, and 16.8% aged sixty or older.

We buy all our rice these days over the internet, and usually a different brand or region every time; we’re currently on Shiga rice of a brand whose name I couldn’t read. We sometimes pick up brown rice or brown rice blends, which makes a change from sometimes quite bland white rice.

However, if you think Japanese rice is bland, may I suggest getting a new rice cooker? We recently replaced our old one which cooked everything into a glutenous mulch, but now with the new one each grain remains distinct and much more pleasent on my tastebuds. I still miss Basmati, however…

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This survey from MyVoice into rice cookers is their second look at the topic, the first having been conducted two years ago and translated by me then.

Demographics

Over the first five days of February 2009 15,419 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

Two years ago I mentioned that the survey omitted to discuss just using a pan or a traditional pot counted as a rice cooker, so I was pleased to see that this time in Q1 they asked not just about electric cookers, but also about other methods of cooking rice. I’m far too modest, and I know I’d be lying anyway, to claim that it was all thanks to this blog that they amended their question!

Oh, and I have a Squidoo page about Japanese rice cookers that occasionally makes me a few cents.
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I think it might just be Scottish slang, but “I could fair murder a curry/Chinese/Mick Jagger” indicates a not inconsiderable desire to consume said item, and of course the second slang meaning fairly describes how people feel on first tasting Japanese curry. This survey from DIMSDRIVE Research looked at how the Japanese consume curry rice.

Demographics

Between the 23rd of July and the 7th of August 2008 9,921 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were female, 1.3% in their teens, 13.7% in their twenties, 34.0% in their thirties, 29.6% in their forties, 15.1% in their fifties, and 6.3% aged sixty or older. In addition, 14.0% lived alone, 64.1% were married, and 51.9% had children.

The name “curry rice” helps differentiate from “proper” curry; this Japanese invention, served at countless restaurants up and down the country, is usually half a plate of standard Japanese short-grain sticky white rice and half a plate of spicy stew. At home the stew is usually prepared from dehydrated blocks of sauce.

My wife cooks lovely curry with lots of potatos, but what most of the prepared mixes lack is a complexity of flavour. I was over in the USA last week and had a curry at a cheap food court, but just to get long-grain Basmati rice and a complex blend of spices that had soaked through the ingredients over many hours was heaven!
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After having looked at rice consumption in January, as a sort-of follow-up, over the first five days of March MyVoice asked their online monitor community about rice cookers.

Demographics

15,947 members osuccessfully completed the online questionnaire. 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 19% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.

IH is Induction Heating, which is… well, this site describes the process in detail.

Note that I don’t know if just boiling a pan of rice on the cooker counts as a rice cooker or not (although I suspect not), or if the traditional rice pan (I can’t remember the Japanese name of the iron pan with the wooden lid) does either (I suspect it might). As a pedagogical note, the Japanese for rice cooker is 炊飯器, suihanki, which “translates” kanji by kanji as boiling rice device
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Over five days at the start of January, MyVoice looked at that Japanese staple, rice. 10,245 members of their online monitor community successfully completed the survey. 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.

My translation for Q3 is not very good, I fear, but I hope you get the general picture! I eat rice almost every day, and at home we use a mix of half white and half brown rice.

I was surprised in Q4 that 3.3% said they like their rice with soy sauce, as not doing it is one of the first points of etiquette drilled into foreigners, so please feel free to print out this survey to justify your bad manners next time you do so in polite company!

Follow this link for more information on Japanese rice cookers.
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