ISM Research Memorandum

No. 1027

Title:

On the Japanese Social Capital, Spirituality and Health−Gender and Cultural Differences in the Relationships between

Self-reported Health, Social Capital and Spirituality.−

Author(s):

Hiroko Tsunoda　　　（Department of Public Health and Occupational Medicine, Graduate school of Medicine, Mie University）

Ryozo Yoshino　 　　（Department of Data Science, The Institute of Statistical Mathematics）

Kazuhito Yokoyama （Department of Public Health and Occupational Medicine, Graduate school of Medicine, Mie University）

Key words:

health satisfaction, religiosity, self-reported health symptom, social capital, spirituality, anxiety, cultural manifold analysis (CULMAN).

Abstract:

The main objective of this paper is to investigate gender differences on the relationships between self-reported health of the Japanese and their social capital and spirituality in the context of our longitudinal and cross-national social survey on national character. Among others, we focus on the data coded as “Japan 2004B survey”, which was a face-to-face interview of general social survey type based on a nationwide statistical random sampling by the Institute of Statistical Mathematics. The survey items covered people’s daily life including economy, education, environment, health, politics, religion and rust, etc. The number of valid questionnaire returns was 785 among the total scheduled 1200 adult sample. We analyze the independent variables of social capital, spirituality and the related variables on two dependent variables with health status (self- reported symptoms and health dissatisfaction) by gender, using multiple logistic regressions. All through the analyses on both dependent variables, only the variable of anxiety was significant for both men and women. The analyses show some differences of response patterns on the two dependent variables, gender, and some cultural differences on social capital, religiosity or spirituality. Finally, we discuss a possible gender difference in the mechanisms of reaction and reduction to stress and a possible cultural differences that the Japanese religiosity and spirituality may be more closely associated with each other than those of the western peoples, and argue that these differences may lead to some behavioral differences even though the deeper cognitive structures may be more common.