世論 What Japan Thinks

[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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