A record high 73% of Japanese residents are happy with their
current living conditions, and over 90% classify themselves
as belonging to the middle-ranking group in terms of living
standards, according to the results of a poll conducted in
May 1995 by the Prime Minister's Office.
The results suggest that people on the whole are
satisfied with their standards of living despite the
economic slowdown and are not particularly interested in
amassing greater wealth.
The pool of respondents consisted of 10,000 men and
women aged 20 or over, and the valid response rate was
73.5%.
To a question on how satisfied people are with their
living standards, 10.4% of respondents reported they were
satisfied and another 62.4% said they were more or less
satisfied. Together, the two totaled 72.7%, the highest
figure registered since the annual poll began being taken in
1958. The previous high was 70.6%, registered in the 1985
survey.
By specific item, the biggest increases in the level of
satisfaction were noted in income and earnings, assets and
savings, consumer durables (such as automobiles and electric
appliances), dwellings, and leisure activities, all of which
rose by between 4 and 7 percentage points over the 1994
survey.
The share of those who answered that they were either
dissatisfied or somewhat dissatisfied with their lifestyles,
meanwhile, fell 6.4 points from the previous year's survey
to a record low of 24.6%.
Middle-of-the-Road
Asked to rate their living standards, the highest
percentage, or 57.4%, classified themselves as belonging to
the "middle middle" group, while 24.0% said they were "lower
middle" and 9.9% "upper middle." Combined, 91.3% reported
that they belonged to the middle category on the lifestyle
spectrum. It appears that with the asset deflation brought
on by the rupturing of the speculative bubbles and the
slowdown of business activity, a type of middle-class
consciousness different from the high-growth years is
spreading.
Asked to select one or more from a prepared list of 20
responses the areas they wanted the government to step up
their involvement in, people most frequently cited medical,
welfare, and pension programs (54.8%), followed by
countermeasures for the recession (46.2%), and programs for
the elderly (44.3%).
Crime prevention, newly added to this year's survey,
was selected by 26.4% of the respondents, becoming the
seventh most popular response. There was a threefold jump in
those citing disaster prevention, moreover, from 7.2% to
20.4%. These two results were clearly influenced by the
March 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subways and the Great
Hanshin Earthquake two months earlier that claimed 5,500
lives.
(The above article, edited by Japan Echo Inc., is based on domestic Japanese news sources. It is offered for reference purposes and does not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Japanese Government.)