20 Things Japanese People Think Are Just Wrong

Between the 21st and 23th of May 2008 1,072 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 50% of the sample were male, 5.7% in their teens, 12.9% in their twenties, 31.8% in their thirties, 27.5% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 10.8% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Ranking results

Q: What sort of thing do you feel is not right in Japan? (Sample size=1,072)

Rank		Score
1	Clothes on a pet	100
2	Hearing “I’ve taken it from xxx yen” at the checkout	89.2
3	Suit plus rucksack	73.3
4	Elementary school kid with a schedule book	69.6
5	Foreign buzzword-littered businessman’s conversation	68.2
6	Long-running animation after changing the voice actors	57.9
7	Cheap clothes and brand handbag	48.0
8	Zero calorie but sweet food, drink	44.8
9	Men with over-attentive eyebrow care	44.6
10	Company name after a merger	41.0
11	The way female staff at clothes shops call out “Irasshaimase!” (Please come in)	40.5
12	Brand name on cheap-looking items	40.3
13	Miso soup and curry	39.3
14	Big television in a studio flat	38.1
15	Spouse calling me “partner”	37.3
16	Okonomiyaki, takoyaki with rice	34.7
17	Udon noodles referred to as Inaniwa-style, Sanuki-style	34.4
18	Young salaryman with a pop star haircut	33.7
19	TV live-action drama version of a popular manga comic	23.9
20	Minor change to a stage name, company name	22.9

A couple of weeks ago, WhatJapanThinks also has another interesting list about what behavior by foreigners in Japan surprises the Japanese in a good way. Here it is:

Ranking results

Q: What behavior by foreigners in Japan surprises the Japanese (in a good way)?
(Sample size=1,072)

Rank	Action	Score
1	Writing difficult kanji	100
2	Bowing on the telephone	88.1
3	Using dialect	86.0
4	Speaking Japanese fluently	82.5
5	Using proverbs, idioms	77.1
6	Eating natto	74.1
7	Habitually using chopsticks	68.2
8	Getting drunk with tie tied around head	64.3
9	Using Japanese era dates, not Western calendar	62.9
10	Singing enka, folk songs	61.0
11	Passing through crowds with a “suimasen” and the one-handed chop	58.9
12	Sitting “seiza”	56.1
13	Slurping noodles	54.0
14	Dancing a bon dance	37.6
15	Using a toothpick	31.8
16	After a bath drinking fruity milk with one hand on hip	26.6
17	Sleeping on a futon on the floor	25.2
18	Taking off shoes before going indoors	24.3
19	Wearing a kimono, yukata	22.7
20	Queueing properly	20.1

Source: WhatJapanThinks 1 , 2
Pic from Hazy Jenius