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News Bulletin

RECENT RELEASE

Results of the 2011 Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities

   The SBJ conducted the 2011 Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities in October 2011, and released the results concerning leisure activities in July 2012.

   The survey aims to obtain comprehensive data on people's time allocation and leisure activities, and has been conducted every five years since 1976. The 2011 Survey was conducted as of October 20, 2011, using two questionnaires, A and B. The survey covered approximately 200,000 persons aged 10 and above in 83,000 households which are randomly selected from the Enumeration Districts of the 2005 Population Census.

   The results on leisure activities within the past year (from October 20, 2010 to October 19, 2011) from Questionnaire A concerned main activities such as Volunteer Activities, Sports, Hobbies and Amusements, Learning, self-education, and training and Travel and excursion. The following is an outline of the results for Volunteer Activities, Sports, and Hobbies and Amusements.

[Volunteer Activities]

   In 2011, 29.95 million people, 26.3% of the total population aged ten and over, engaged in volunteer activities, remaining almost at the same level as 2006.

   Regarding participation rate of Volunteer Activities by categories, "Local improvement activities" was the highest at 10.9%, followed by "Activities for children" at 8.2%.

   Compared with the 2006 survey, "Activities for children" and "Disaster related activities" were the only categories that went up, namely 2.6 points.

Participation Rate of Persons Engaged in Volunteer Activities (2006, 2011)

[Sports]

   Persons engaged in sports activities numbered 71.84 million and the participation rate was 63.0%, down by 2.3 % points compared with the 2006 survey.

   Regarding the participation rate of sports activities by categories, "Walking or light physical exercise" was the highest at 35.2%, followed by "Bowling" at 12.8%.

   Compared with the 2006 survey, participation rates in almost all of categories decreased . "Bowling" decreased by 5.8 points, followed by "Swimming" by 3.3 points, and "Skiing, snowboarding" by 2.0 points.

   On the other hand, "Jogging, marathon" went up by 0.8 points, followed by "Walking or light physical exercise" by 0.3 points, and "Cycling" by 0.1 points.

Participation Rate of Persons Engaged in Sports (2006, 2011)

   (Note) showing categories of participation rates of 3% or more

[Hobbies and Amusements]

   Persons engaged in hobbies and amusements activities numbered 96.77 million and the participation rate was 84.8%, remaining almost at the same level as 2006.

   Regarding the participation rate of hobbies and amusements by categories, "Listening to music by CD, tape, records, etc." was the highest at 47.5%, followed by "Watching movies by DVD, video, etc." at 40.5% and "Reading books as hobbies" at 39.5%.

   Compared with the 2006 survey, participation rates in almost all of categories decreased . "Watching movies by DVD, video, etc." decreased by 5.4 points, followed by "Listening to music by CD, tape, records, etc." by 4.9 points.

   On the other hand, "Playing home use video games or PC games" went up by 0.3 points, followed by "Going to popular music concerts" by 0.2 points.

Participation Rate of Persons Engaged in Hobbies and Amusements (2006, 2011)

   (Note) showing top 20 categories of hobbies and amusements

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