Surveys on the Japanese National Character

• Findings from the Fourteenth Wave of the Survey
• Findings from the First through the Thirteenth Waves of the Survey 　

The Survey on the Japanese National Character is one of the statistical social surveys conducted by the Institute of Statistical Mathematics in Japan. The primary objective of this survey is to analyze Japanese people’s beliefs, attitudes, and value orientations, as well as to trace changes in these characteristics over time.

Initiated in 1953, shortly after World War II, the survey has been administered at five-year intervals using largely consistent methodologies and questionnaire items. As a long-term continuous survey, it pursues two principal aims:

1. To elucidate long-term trends in the thought patterns and attitudes of the Japanese through a set of questions that have remained comparable across decades.
2. To identify emerging social tendenciesand anticipate future developments by introducing new items and revisiting previously used questions, even when they are not included in every wave.

The survey targets individuals aged 20 and older.
(For the 11th and 12th waves, the age range was 20 to under 80; from the 13th wave onward, it has been 20 to under 85.)

In each wave, a sample of 2,254 to 6,400 respondents is drawn using a stratified multi-stage random sampling. Data collection is conducted through face-to-face interviews.

The questionnaire encompasses a broad array of topics designed to capture salient aspects of the Japanese national character. While many questions are repeated across survey waves to ensure comparability, not all items are included in every iteration.

Each question is assigned a unique number (a “#-number”) that remains constant across all survey waves. Furthermore, all items are organized into nine thematic domains, ranging from §1 Demographic Data of Respondents to §9 Race and The Japanese People.

In the first, third, and fourth nationwide surveys, a single questionnaire was administered. In contrast, the second nationwide survey conducted in 1958 employed two distinct questionnaires: a blue version and a white version. The blue questionnaire commenced with Question 1, whereas the white questionnaire began with Question 101.

Beginning with the fifth nationwide survey in 1973, two separate questionnaire forms have been used:

• a form consisting primarily of the items that have been administered continuously across survey waves, referred to as the K-type questionnaire, and
• a form emphasizing newly introduced items, designated as the M-type questionnaire.

The adoption of both the K-type and M-type questionnaires is intended to reduce respondent burden, particularly with respect to interview duration. For each survey wave, the sample was divided into two subsamples, with one group receiving the K-type questionnaire and the other the M-type questionnaire.

 The first objective is to elucidate Japanese people’s perceptions, ways of thinking, and the changes therein, by analyzing the survey findings. Through the continuity of the survey, the project seeks to accumulate a broad range of meaningful and insightful knowledge regarding the Japanese national character.

The second objective is to advance research on innovative statistical survey methodologies capable of adapting to ongoing and future societal changes. Over the past half-century, the survey environment has transformed substantially due to factors such as declining response rates and the emergence of new communication media, including the internet. With these developments in mind, the project aims to design and refine survey techniques that remain effective and feasible under contemporary and evolving conditions.

The third objective is to research into more sophisticated statistical analysis techniques. We aim to use actual survey data, rather than hypothetical data, such as with simulations, to develop statistical techniques that are directly applicable and genuinely useful in empirical research.

List of Committees

Unless otherwise indicated by an affiliation shown in parentheses, all committee members are affiliated with the Institute of Statistical Mathematics.

1st Committee (1953)
Joichi SUETUNA, Hirotsugu AKAIKE, Hirojiro AOYAMA, Chikio HAYASHI, Masatsugu ISHIDA, Shigeki NISHIHIRA, Kikuo NOMOTO

2nd Committee (1958)
Joichi SUETUNA (Director-General), Chikio HAYASHI, Hirojiro AOYAMA, Yoshio UCHIDA, Masatsugu ISHIDA, Shigeki NISHIHIRA, Yasushi TAGA, Shigeki SAKINO, Yukio SUZUKI, Toshio UEMATSU, Tatsuzo SUZUKI, Kiyoshi OISHI

3rd Committee (1963)
Joichi SUETUNA (Director-General), Chikio HAYASHI, Hirojiro AOYAMA, Masatsugu ISHIDA, Shigeki NISHIHIRA, Yasushi TAGA, Toshio UEMATSU, Tatsuzo SUZUKI

4th Committee (1968)
Joichi SUETUNA (Director-General), Chikio HAYASHI, Hirojiro AOYAMA, Shigeki NISHIHIRA, Tatsuzo SUZUKI

5th Committee (1973)
Chikio HAYASHI, Hirojiro AOYAMA, Shigeki NISHIHIRA, Tatsuzo SUZUKI, Yoshiyuki SAKAMOTO

6th Committee (1978)
Chikio HAYASHI, Hirojiro AOYAMA, Shigeki NISHIHIRA, Tatsuzo SUZUKI, Kinji MIZUNO, Giichiro SUZUKI, Yoshiyuki SAKAMOTO, Masakatsu MURAKAMI

7th Committee (1983)
Chikio HAYASHI, Tatsuzo SUZUKI, Giichiro SUZUKI, Kinji MIZUNO, Yoshiyuki SAKAMOTO, Masakatsu MURAKAMI, Takashi NAKAMURA, Nobuyuki KAWAI, Shigeki NISHIHIRA (Sophia University)

8th Committee (1988)
Kinji MIZUNO, Yoshiyuki SAKAMOTO, Masakatsu MURAKAMI, Takashi NAKAMURA, Nobuhisa KASHIWAGI

9th Committee (1993)
Yoshiyuki SAKAMOTO, Tsutomu KOMAZAWA, Giichiro SUZUKI, Masakatsu MURAKAMI, Yasumasa BABA, Takashi NAKAMURA, Ryozo YOSHINO

10th Committee (1998)
Yoshiyuki SAKAMOTO, Tsutomu KOMAZAWA, Giichiro SUZUKI, Masakatsu MURAKAMI, Yasumasa BABA, Hirofumi TAKAGI, Takashi NAKAMURA, Ryozo YOSHINO, Tadahiko MAEDA, Takahiro TSUCHIYA

11th Committee (2003)
Yoshiyuki SAKAMOTO, Masakatsu MURAKAMI, Yasumasa BABA, Takashi NAKAMURA, Ryozo YOSHINO, Tadahiko MAEDA, Takahiro TSUCHIYA

12th Committee (2008)
Takashi NAKAMURA, Ryozo YOSHINO, Tadahiko MAEDA, Takahiro TSUCHIYA, Wataru MATSUMOTO

13th Committee (2013)
Takashi NAKAMURA, Ryozo YOSHINO, Tadahiko MAEDA, Takahiro TSUCHIYA, Yoosung PARK

14th Committee (2018)
Tadahiko MAEDA, Yoosung PARK, Ryozo YOSHINO

15th Committee (2025)
Tadahiko MAEDA, Yoosung PARK

• TAMA-Area Residents Survey
• Cross-National Comparative Survey
• Trend Survey on the Japanese National Character　
• Tsuruoka Survey of language standardization