Awareness Survey of 18-Year-OldsResults of 30th installment announced

The 30th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out from September 29 to October 5 on the subject of “Reading and Writing.” The survey showed that roughly 60% of respondents “enjoy” reading books, while slightly more than 10% do not. Asked how many books they read per month, the largest group, at 45%, read one or two books per month, which was more than the 33% who don’t read any books at all. The most popular genres were “novels” (liked by 63% of respondents), followed by “manga” (Japanese comic books; 50%) and a type of Japanese young adult novels called “light novels” (26%). In addition, one in four respondents replied that they have been reading more during the new coronavirus pandemic. The percentage who read newspapers was roughly 33%, which marked a 15 percentage-point decline from the 48% who replied that they read a newspaper in the 2nd installment of the survey, carried out in September 2018. With regard to the time spent reading newspapers, the largest group, at 44%, replied “at least 5 minutes but less than 10,” which was followed by 33% who replied “less than 5 minutes.”

With regard to writing, roughly 30% of respondents “enjoy” writing, while 28% “dislike” writing. Among those respondents who read three or more books per month, the percentage of respondents who also enjoy writing was more than 10 percentage points higher than for those who read one or two books, and three times higher than those who don’t read books at all. When asked about the decline in Japanese students’ reading skills in recent years as measured by the OECD’s PISA survey, 65% replied that it is “not good,” and when asked about their own reading skills, 38% felt that they were “weak,” while 34% felt that they were “not weak.”

Notes:

1. From the 13th survey, the number of respondents, comprising men and women aged 17 to 19, has been increased to 1,000 from 800. (With the exception of the 20th installment, “Awareness Survey of Society and Country,” all surveys cover respondents in Japan only.)
2. In the information below, differences between total amounts and simple sums are due to rounding.

Survey 30. Reading and Writing (Results announced on October 26, 2020)

Finding: Roughly 60% of respondents “enjoy” reading books, while slightly more than 10% do not. Close to half of respondents read one or two books per month. (n = 1,000)

Survey Highlights

• 59.7% “enjoy” reading books, 12.8% “dislike” reading books
• Largest percentage (44.8%) read one or two books per month
• 32.7% don’t read any books at all
• Favorite genres: (1) novels; (2) manga; (3) light novels
• New coronavirus effect: 24.9% are “reading more”
• 67.3% “do not read” newspapers, 32.7% “read” newspapers
• Time spent reading newspapers: “at least 5 minutes but less than 10” (44.3%)
• 29.4% of all respondents “enjoy” writing
• 39.4% of respondents who enjoy reading books and 46.2% who read three or more books per month “enjoy” writing
• Particularly enjoy writing: short postings on social media (24.0%); postings with photos on social media (14.8%)
• One’s own reading skills: 38.2% felt that they were “weak,” 33.7% felt that they were “not weak”
• 48.0% of respondents who read three or more books per month felt that their reading skills were “not weak”

Correlation Between Reading and Writing

Breakdown of responses to the question, “Do you enjoy writing?” (n = 1,000)

Finding: The percentage of respondents who read a newspaper has declined by roughly 15 percentage points since 2018.

Finding: One-third of respondents do not feel that their reading skills are weak, while a slightly higher percentage believe they are. (n = 1,000)