A Tale of Two Surveys

Here's an interesting look at how we see the news. The English press in Japan reported on a finding in a survey about how young Japanese women have been injuring themselves on purpose. Here's how the Kyodo News reported it:

One in seven women aged 20 to 24, or 15 percent of ...

(Kyodo) _ One in seven women aged 20 to 24, or 15 percent of them, have injured themselves in such ways as cutting their wrists, according to a survey of a research team at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry released Monday.

"We cannot deny the possibility that pessimism has become a prevalent mood among young women particularly and that bitter feelings about society have caused them to harm themselves," said Kunio Kitamura, head of the Japan Family Planning Association Clinic, who took charge of the survey.

The survey was conducted last November on some 1,400 men and women between 16 and 49 years old, mainly to research their sexual behavior. Surveys of this kind were previously conducted in 2002 and 2004 but this was the first time that the survey had covered self-inflicted injuries.

Out of all respondents, 6 percent of women and 2 percent of men had inflicted injuries on

themselves at some point, while a further 19 percent of women and 13 percent of men had thought of doing so, according to the survey.

For women aged 20 to 24, 11 percent said they had injured themselves several times, 4 percent said they did so just once and 25 percent said they had thought about doing so. Among men in the same age bracket, 5 percent had injured themselves.

It's not an encouraging statistic. Then again, there's not much to go with in this article. Out of a presumably detailed survey, all that gets reported is a single sad tidbit about Japanese women.

Contrast this with how the same survey was reported in the Mainichi Shimbun:

セックスレス：夫婦の３割　年々増加　厚労省調査

More than 30% of married couples in sexless marriages according to Health Ministry Report--my translation

　結婚している人のうち、３分の１以上が１カ月以上セックスをしない－－。厚生労働省の研究班（主任研究者＝武谷雄二・東大医学部教授）の調査でこんな実態が明らかになった。「セックスレス」の割合は年々上昇する傾向にあり、研究者からは少子化とのかかわりを指摘する声が上がっている。

調査は「第３回男女の生活と意識に関する調査」で、性意識や性行動を調べることを目的にした同省の子ども家庭総合研究事業の一つとして実施した。対象は満１６～４９歳の男女３０００人。調査期間は昨年１１月２日～１１月２６日。回収率は５１．９％。

調査の結果、婚姻関係にある人のうち１カ月以上セックスがないというセックスレス（日本性科学会の定義）が３４．６％に上った。０２年の調査では３１．９％だった。

研究者の一人である社団法人・日本家族計画協会の北村邦夫常務理事は「ここ何度かの調査で割合が高くなる傾向が続いている。少子化との関連も調べる必要がある」と話している。【北川仁士】
毎日新聞　2007年3月13日　12時59分

WTF? The survey is about sex? That's just the headline. The rest of the story then gives specifics and makes no mention of women injuring themselves. What does this say about how news gets reported? Why does the English press focus on the self-inflicted injuries while the Japanese press reports on sexless marriages? Is it because the odd and bizarre angle of the story is more appealing to the English press? Is the Japanese press more interested in the sexless marriage aspect since its a pressing social issue? Or does the Japanese press ignore the women injuring themselves given recent stories concerning bullying and students killing each other? Or did the Japanese press just miss this one? After all, the English article notes that it was the first time that data on self-inflicted injuries was included in the survey. I have tried to find the study online, but have met with no success.

Note: I say the two articles are about the same survey based on the fact that both mention the survey was conducted in November last year and that Kunio Kitamura conducted the survey. I could be wrong.