SUMMARY
i
A national audience survey was conducted in Japan in May 1988 among a repre- sentative sample of the population aged 13 and over. The BBC questions were included in a regular multi-client survey carried out by Nippon Research Center Ltd., the Japanese affiliate of the Gallup organisation. Altogether 1,486 respon- dents were interviewed in all regions except Okinawa.
Radio and television set ownership is almost universal in Japan but radio listening is at a fairly low level. 40% of the 13+ population never listen to the radio. On an average day, no more than 6% are listening at any one time; not surprisingly, there are no peak times for radio listening.
Awareness of foreign radio is fairly high: 10% of the sample could spontaneously name at least one foreign broadcaster. After prompting, the total awareness figure came to about 25%.
3.4% of the sample had listened to foreign broadcasting in the 12 months before the interview. The two most important features of foreign radio listening in Japan are that such listening is casual in nature, and when the choice is available, medi- umwave is preferred over shortwave.
Of the listed broadcasters in Japanese, Radio Moscow and Radio Beijing came first (both broadcast on mediumwave as well as on shortwave). Among broadcasters in English, the BBC and VOA headed the list, with small audiences.
One in 10 of those who know about the BBC had listened to its broadcasts in the last 12 months. The BBC had a regular audience in Japanese of 0.1% of the sample and a total audience of 0.5%. The regular audience in English was also 0.1%, with a total audience of 0.8%. BBC listening was most likely among better educated men living in large cities.
There were indications in the survey that the Japanese associate foreign radio listening with having to know foreign languages, i.e. the possibility of listening in Japanese may not have occurred to them.
Japan 87
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