Building a Beautiful Japan: The Survey Results
On July 5, the Cabinet Office published the results of its survey into public attitudes concerning Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s idea of “A Beautiful Country, Japan.” It seems unlikely that an English translation will be offered by the Cabinet Office (and certainly not any time soon), so I think it’s worth looking into what the survey asked and what it found.
We reported on the government’s desire to carry out such a survey back in January, when it was reported that the Cabinet Office would create a list of ‘100 quintessential elements of Japan’ by polling the public on what makes Japan beautiful. Of course, the poll published on Thursday was done in multiple-choice format, so the set of possible answers has been pretty much dictated by the government.
The survey was sent to 3,000 Japanese citizens over the age of 20, and 1,827, or 60.9 percent, replied. It was carried out from May 24 to June 3 of this year. There were six main questions that were asked, and I’d like to give a translation of the first two, since they seem most indicative of how the public feels about the current state of Japan:
1. Do you think that Japan is currently beautiful?
It is beautiful 10.6%
If I had to decide, I would say it’s beautiful 42.7%
If I had to decide, I would say it’s not beautiful 31.8%
It is not beautiful 11.2%
Cannot decide between the two 3.1%
I don’t know 0.7%
2. What is beautiful about Japan?
- Nature (Mountains, forests, the sea, the four seasons and so on) 80%
- Japanese craftsmanship (Traditional industrial arts, temple carpentry, small factories and workshops) 58.5%
- Scenery (the countryside, undeveloped woodland landscapes, towns with tiles roofs) 52.8%
- Traditional culture (Noh, Kabuki, Japanese dancing, festivals, Sumo) 50.8%
- Japanese spirit, disposition and sense (Modest virtues, manners and etiquette, diligence) 33.8%
- Japanese food culture (Sushi, Shoujin Ryori - vegetarian cuisine derived from Buddhist dietary rules) 33.7%
- Japanese patterns of behavior (Rigidness/Regularity/Coldness in movements and behavior, a Japanese lifestyle with tatami and fusuma - sliding screens) 33.7%
- Japanese language (Keigo, dialects, ancient Japanese words) 32.8%
- Leading edge technology (Energy conservation implementing technologies, mobile phone technologies) 17.2%
- Youth culture (Pop culture, fashion, J-pop) 4.7%
- Other 0.2%
- Nothing Special 0.7%
- I don’t know 0.4%
Are there conclusions to be drawn from this? For one, I’d like to know why the Cabinet Office felt it necessary to conduct the survey in multiple choice format, with the possible answers already laid out. Some critics of Japan have made the case that the government, especially through bodies such as the Ministry of Education, have actively sought to define what being Japanese means instead of allowing such concepts to develop naturally. I’ve always found such arguments to be bordering on conspiracy theory, but there is something behind such lines of thought.
I think we also need to bear in mind that this survey represents the views of about 0.000014% of Japan’s population (I’m using 127,000,000 as the population of Japan). These numbers hardly seem relevant. The report does not tell us how the 3,000 people who received surveys were selected, how the survey was carried out, or what the age breakdown was for respondents. Answers to these questions would be highly relevant.
Later in the survey, we learn that 21.8% of respondents felt that Japan’s beauty should be communicated overseas, while 29.1% felt that it was important to participate in Japan’s beauty through attendance at festivals and other such cultural events. 29.2% believed that it was important to have writings published or seminars held in order to teach people about what is beautiful about Japan. Those results also seem telling.
I don’t know if the attitude is that “Foreigners won’t understand Japan,” or, “Foreigners aren’t interested in Japan anyway,” or, “Japan is too esoteric to be explained overseas,” but it seems that a surprisingly low number of people seem interested in communicating what is unique about Japan to people from overseas.
Any other ideas?
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