| Abstract | |||||||||||||
| Survey Number | 0615 | ||||||||||||
| Survey Title | The Questionnaire Survey on Work and Life of Workers, 2008.10 | ||||||||||||
| Depositor | JTUC Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards (Former Name:Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards) | ||||||||||||
| Restriction of Use |
For detailed information, please refer to 'For Data Users' on the SSJDA website.
- Apply to SSJDA. SSJDA's approval is required. |
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| Educational Purpose | Available for both research and instructional purposes. | ||||||||||||
| Period of Data Use Permission | One year | ||||||||||||
| Access to Datasets | Download | ||||||||||||
| SSJDA Data Analysis | Not available | ||||||||||||
| Summary |
This survey, “The Questionnaire Survey on Work and Life of Workers,” aims to clarify economic, employment, and living trends as seen from the perspective of workers and to obtain basic information with which to consider policy issues from the perspective of improving employment and quality of life. This is done by periodically exploring workers’ attitudes toward economic trends in Japan and their current state of work and living. The survey has been conducted regularly in April and October of every year since the first survey in April 2001, and this is the 16th survey. In the 10th survey (October 2005), fixed-point survey items were revised, survey subjects were expanded to include people in their early 60s, and some other improvements were made. This survey reflects changes that were made then. All previous surveys are archived in the SSJDA. The Japanese economy is entering a downturn. In particular, the consciousness and feeling of workers can be said to be rapidly declining. While companies achieved high profits during the “economic recovery period” that began in 2002, the rise in wages has not been commensurate. Since workers’ lives have not improved, the proportion of irregular workers with unstable employment has increased, indicating that the impact of this recession on workers in the future could be particularly serious. In this survey, as people are feeling great uncertainty regarding the Japanese economy, we reminded ourselves of the origin of the survey and focused on exploring the current state of the economy and employment from the perspective of workers. The main survey items are as follows: 〇Awareness of economy, prices, and work - Awareness of economy, wages, prices, life circumstances, unemployment [fixed-point observation survey] - Actual feeling about inflation rate, present situation and prospect of saving 〇Awareness regarding working hours and time use - Status of non-payment of overtime [fixed point observation survey] - Working hours (including overtime work), hope regarding time use, work outside of working hours, stress from and at work 〇Awareness of workers’ rights - Awareness and source of information about workers’ rights |
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| Data Type | quantitative research: micro data | ||||||||||||
| Universe | Private company employees in their 20s to early 60s who live in the Greater Tokyo Area and Kansai region | ||||||||||||
| Unit of Observation | Individual | ||||||||||||
| Sample Size |
Although this survey targets “employees working at private companies,” the sample contains some respondents who are not employees, owing to a change in their employment status from the time they registered for the access panel and the time the survey was conducted. 34 of the respondents “in their 20s to 50s” and 14 “in their early 60s” in the current survey fall under this category of non-employees. The survey results of only employed people were analyzed. |
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| Date of Collection |
2008-10-02 ~ 2008-10-14 2008/10/02 (Thu) – 10/14 (Tue) |
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| Time Period |
2008 ~ 2008 |
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| Spatial Unit |
saitama
chiba
tokyo
kanagawa
shiga
kyoto
osaka
hyogo
nara
wakayama
The Greater Tokyo Area (Saitama/Chiba/Tokyo/Kanagawa prefectures) Kansai region (Shiga/Kyoto/Osaka/Hyogo/Nara/Wakayama prefectures)
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| Sampling Procedure |
Other
In order to gain a sufficient sample for those in their early 60s, the sampling rate was almost four times the rate used for those in their 20s to 50s. (1) 20s to 50s The sample allocation criteria were prepared, taking into account the population size of private employees in the Greater Tokyo Area and Kansai region, as well as the distribution of employees by gender, age group, and employment status of the “2002 (Heisei 14) Employment Status Survey.” Based on these allocation criteria, 582 people living in the Greater Tokyo Area and 318 people living in Kansai region (900 people in total) were extracted from the access panel of INTAGE Inc. (approximately 240,000 people nationwide). (2) Early 60s The sample allocation criteria were prepared in consideration of the distribution of private company employees in the Greater Tokyo area and Kansai region by gender and employment status of the “2002 Employment Status Survey.” Based on these allocation criteria, 200 people “aged 60 to 64 years” living in the Greater Tokyo Area and Kansai region were extracted from the access panel of INTAGE Inc. (approximately 240,000 people nationwide). |
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| Mode of Data Collection |
Self-administered questionnaire: Paper
Questionnaires for self-administered mail survey were distributed Data in the analysis are summarized separately for those in their 20s to 50s and those in their early 60s, owing the differences in sampling method for these two groups as outlined above. In the report, the survey of those in their early 60s is treated only as a reference, and the summary values in the survey pertain only to employees in their 20s to 50s. |
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| Investigator | Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards, survey carried out by Intage Inc. | ||||||||||||
| DOI | 10.34500/SSJDA.0615 | ||||||||||||
| Sponsors (Funds) | |||||||||||||
| Related Publications (by the Investigator) | 【 Questionnaire | ||||||||||||
| Related Publications (based on Secondary Analysis) | List of related publications (based on Secondary Analysis) | ||||||||||||
| Documentation | |||||||||||||
| Major Survey Items |
Questionnaire items: (1) Economic trends and business situation at the place of employment Current Japanese economy compared to one year ago, economic forecast for Japan one year later, employment situation, current business situation at the place of employment (performance) (comparison with one year ago/forecast one year later), increase or decrease in number of employees in the company compared to one year ago (regular employees/non-regular employees), increase or decrease in actual working hours compared with one year ago, anxiety about becoming unemployed in one year (2) Income, consumption, and living conditions Increase or decrease in personal wage income (comparison with one year ago/forecast one year later), increase or decrease in total household income (comparison with one year ago/forecast for one year hence), increase or decrease in total household consumption (comparison with one year ago/forecast for one year hence), sense of fluctuation in prices (comparison with one year ago/forecast one year later), inflation rate felt, current situation of cutting down on expenses and what expenses respondent plans to spend less money on, perspective on being frugal for the next one year, household living conditions (comparison with one year ago/forecast one year later) (3) Evaluation of work and life Respondent’s evaluation of work at place of work (11 items), work characteristics and degree of discretion (10 items), sense of excess or insufficiency of workers in relation to volume of work, whether shortage is for regular or non-regular employees, performance/outcome based wage and benefit differences for regular employees compared to five years ago, time allocation for work and non-work activities, preference of time use Whether respondent wants to work for a different company/reasons, satisfaction level with work, satisfaction level with life in general, subjective symptoms (13 items) in the last month, stress from job and in workplace compared to one year ago, health condition (4) Labor union Existence of labor union, membership status, intention to become a union member, whether a union is necessary (5) Working overtime and on days off Reasons for working outside of regular hours, whether eligible for overtime allowance, working hours system being implemented, method of determining the time when overtime allowance is paid, percentage of time that overtime allowance was actually paid, reason for unpaid overtime (so-called service overtime) (6) Way of spending time outside of working hours Actions related to work usually done during working hours (7) Perception of workers’ rights Perception of workers’ rights, information sources on workers’ rights, indispensability of recognizing workers’ rights Face items: Gender, age, marital status, highest level of educational attainment, actual working hours per week, annual personal wage income, household income, earners other than respondent, spouse’s employment status, spouse’s actual working hours per week, financial provider in the household, number of children, age of the youngest child, political party supported, support for the Cabinet, information sources on national politics and policies, industry of employer, size by number of employees, occupation type, years of continuous employment In addition, the access panel registration information was used for area of residence, household composition, type of residence, number of years at residence, etc. |
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| Date of Release | 2009/07/14 | ||||||||||||
| Topics in CESSDA |
Click here for details Income, property and investment/saving Employment Labour relations/conflict Working conditions |
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| Topics in SSJDA | Employment/Labor Society/Culture | ||||||||||||
| Version | 1 ： 2009-07-14 | ||||||||||||
| Notes for Users | Variable and value labels are written in Japanese. |