Japanese Thoughts on Chinese Products
I’m sure everyone has heard about the pesticide poisoning from Chinese gyoza in Japan. And just at the right time, whatjapanthinks found a nice survey from Myvoice surveying how japanese view Chinese products.
This survey was conducted on January 01st to 05th, and it surveyed 12,669 members through an internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties.
Q1: Do you feel worried about or aversion to using Chinese products?
Now, Jan 2008 Oct 2005 Yes 88.2% 50.4% No 11.8% 49.6%
Q2: How has your image of Chinese products changed?
Become better than before 2.5% No particular change 21.8% Become worse than before 75.7%
Q3: Which of the following categories of Chinese products have you purchased?
Clothes 71.0% Processed foods 53.1% Vegetables 52.2% Shoes, bag 49.1% Household items 44.4% Tea 41.7% Meat, fish 40.2% Electrical products 28.7% Beverages, alcohol 22.8% Pottery, ceramics 18.9% Watch, glasses, accessories 18.7% Furniture, bedding, interior 18.4% Computer items 14.5% Beauty, health, cosmetics 9.1% Medical items, drugs 5.1% Movie, DVD 4.3% Music 3.6% Car 1.0% Other 6.7% Don’t know 10.1% Never bought any Chinese goods 1.4% No answer 0.1%
Q4: From the following categories of foodstuffs, medical items, and other items that directly affect one’s body, which China-made products would you not want to purchase?
Meat, fish 87.1% Vegetables 84.1% Processed foods 80.9% Medical items, drugs 74.0% Beauty, health, cosmetics 65.5% Beverages, alcohol 60.7% Tea 56.7% Other 18.0% None in particular 4.1% No answer 0.2%
Q5: Why would you not want to purchase the items from Q4?
Poor safety 90.8% Untrustworthy 73.2% Poor quality 54.4% Not technically advanced 23.2% Break easily, not long-lasting 19.5% Poor aesthetics 8.1% Unoriginal 5.9% Expensive 0.6% Other 3.7% Nothing in particular 0.2% No answer 0.2%
Q6: From the following categories of items, which China-made products would you not want to purchase?
Electrical products 56.5% Computer items 53.1% Car 52.5% Watch, glasses, accessories 36.2% Movie, DVD 33.0% Music 31.3% Shoes, bag 30.1% Furniture, bedding, interior 28.4% Clothes 27.5% Household items 24.7% Pottery, ceramics 24.4% Other 10.7% Nothing in particular 16.3% No answer 0.2%
Q7: Why would you not want to purchase the items from Q6?
Untrustworthy 69.7% Poor safety 62.2% Break easily, not long-lasting 52.3% Poor quality 52.3% Not technically advanced 46.6% Poor aesthetics 17.5% Unoriginal 12.8% Expensive 2.4% Other 5.3% Nothing in particular 0.4% No answer 0.2%
Summary: Seems like Japanese are feeling more aversive towards using Chinese products. You can see a 30% increase in people feeling worried and 75% also felt it became worse than before.
The food industry in China is certainly getting alot of bad press over these few months. But come to think of it, many of our daily products, food and clothing all come from China. Especially those nice items in the 100 yen stores like Daiso or even clothing from Uniqlo.
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It’s perfectly reasonable to doubt Chinese safety standards, since they are often either low or not enforced. However, it is too bad that this plays into the Japanese prejudice against China as backward and disorderly, which is strong enough already.
Fortunately, the safety problems that have turned up both in Japan and in North America appear to be a bit of a wake-up call to Chinese authorities, who are now trying to figure out how to enforce standards. Not an easy task in a vast, constantly-moving country full of energetic nascent capitalists.
Of course, the foreign companies who either have set up factories in China or who buy from Chinese suppliers also have a responsibility in all this: they have to figure out how to enforce standards, too.
China’s getting bad press from USA too after that lead poisoning in the toys incident that happened around the holidays. Their “booming economy” is about to get a slap in the face=P