CONTEMPORARY JAPAN
IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
MOCK PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY
QUESTION ASSIGNMENT
Using
as a base the subject matter you have chosen to explore for your essay on
contemporary Japan, develop a series of three (or more) statements which
might appear on a public opinion survey questionnaire distributed in Japan
late in April of 2000.
These statements should reflect
contemporary concerns before the Japanese public today. They should consider
specific contemporary issues confronting Japanese citizens at the beginning
of the twenty-first century and beyond, not overly generalized nor abstract
matters that have little relevance to the current scene.
The statements should be
phrased in such a way that a native Japanese respondent to the questionnaire
could indicate the degree to which he or she agrees or disagrees with the
statement. For example:
Japan
today has lost its kokutai (national essence) to the inroads of
western-induced materialism and individualism.
To help you in the creation
of these survey questions, you might want to access recent actual public
opinion survey questions; these can be reviewed at the Roper
Center's Japanese Data Archive web site.
The
Diet (Japan's parliament) still has not been effectively redistricted so
as to eliminate the bias in favor of rural areas.
THE PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY STATEMENTS
SHOULD BE HANDED TO THE INSTRUCTOR NO LATER THAN WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2000.
These statements will become
the basis for a MOCK PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE available on the
course web site Friday, April 21, 2000 and discussed in class the following
Monday, April 24, 2000.