Table Of ContentQuantitative Social Research in Germany and Japan
Chikio HayashilErwin K. Scheuch (Hrsg.)
Quantitative Social
Research in Germany
and Japan
Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1996
ISBN 978-3-8100-1332-3 ISBN 978-3-322-95919-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-322-95919-5
© 1996 Leske + Budrich, Opladen
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Contents
Erwin K. Scheuch and Chikio Hayashi
Quantitative Research in Germany and Japan 9
Part I
Wolfgang Jagodzinski
The Metamorphosis of Life Cycle Change in Longitudinal Studies
on Postmaterialism 25
Tatsuzo Suzuki
Macro Analysis by Means of Cohort Analysis 53
Michael Hader
Presentation of Planned Behaviour During the Radical Social Changes
in Eastern Germany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 71
Part II
Manfred Kuechler
Einheit fiber alles?
- What Did the Voter Decide in the 1990 German Elections? 93
Franz Urban Pappi
Personal Environments in the Process of Political Intermediation as a
Topic of the Comparative National Election Study . . . . .. 122
6 Contents
Part III
Gerhard Arminger
Statistical Methods and Models for the Analysis of Cross-Cultural Data 143
Klaus G. Troitzsch
Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation of Social Processes. 161
Ryozo Yoshino
Degree of Conformity for the Cross-National Comparative Study
of National Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Part IV
Chikio Hayashi
Cultural Link Analysis (CLA) for Comparative Quantitative
Social Research and its Applications 209
lorg Blasius and Erwin K. Scheuch
How Different are European Countries from Each Other? Describing
Trend Data by Using Correspondence Analysis . . . . . .. 230
Ichiro Miyake
Dimensions of Partisanship: A Five-Nation Comparison 249
Fumi Hayashi
Comparative Data Analysis of ALLBUS and Japanese Data: Desirable
Quality for a Child, Meaning of Human Life, Legal Abortion,
and Important Aspect of Job 266
Masamichi Sasaki
Religious Factors and General Social Attitudes Among Five Industrial
Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 289
Contents 7
Part V
Kazuo Kawatake and Meiko Sugiyama
Images of Foreigners in Mass Media 313
Jurgen Friedrichs
Models of Urban Change 334
Jyuji Misumi
The PM Theory: A Borderless Approach to Leadership Apprehension 351
Part VI
Naomichi Nakanishi
Time Budget Studies in Japan 373
Wolfgang Sodeur
Opportunity Structures and Network Relations 386
Erich Weede
The Impact of Distributional Coalitions and State Power on Economic
Performance 401
About the Authors 422
Quantitative Social Research in Germany and Japan
Erwin K. Scheuch and Chikio Hayashi
1. Introduction
Japan and Germany are two settings for the craft of sociology with a long tradi
tion of the field, dating back to the late 19th century. And -contrary to interna
tional stereotypes - sociology was in both countries right from the beginning, at
the same time, both theoretical/philosophical and empirical. Examples for Japan
are the many studies of village communities, and for Germany Ferdinand Ton
nies' quantitative studies of social correlates for differences in crime rates.
International communication and cooperation has worked better for the theore
tical/philosophical branch of sociology. German sociology in its empirical version
remained for the largest part internationally unknown; the same holds for empiri
cal sociology in Japan. To correct this, a systematic cooperation between groups
of Japanese and German social scientists was initiated, including biannual compa
rative surveys within the context of the "International Social Science Program"
(ISSP), and of data archives with social science data. An additional step was a
symposium for Japanese and German empirical social scientists.
This collection of papers from the ftrst Japanese-German conference on quanti
tative social research in 1991, organized by the Zentralarchiv fur Empirische So
zialforschung, is part of this program for cooperation in quantitative social science
in both countries. It is so with a particular accent not only on quantitative techno
logy in general but for a large part on advanced statistical procedures. And within
this context it is data from survey research that have a place of central im
portance.
This was not always so in quantitative social research in the two countries but
today most of the important empirical studies are based on surveys. It is not the
aim of this anthology to document empirical research, especially in its quantitative
orientation, in its whole spectrum. Rather did the conveners hope to have ad
vanced forms of quantitative research represented. For us, the overwhelming im
pression of the exchange presented in this anthology is one of sameness in re
search as a craft, while, at the same time, the organizational settings for research
differ drastically.
10 Erwin K. Scheuch and Chikio Hayashi
2. The case of Japan
In Japan, prior to the Second World War, there were very few notable social sur
veys. Only those are worthy of mention: 2 national-scale surveys carried out in
1930 and 1940 by the Social Education Section of the Japanese Prime Minister's
Office. These were based on representative sampling. The third survey worthy of
note was the Time Budget Survey conducted by the Japanese Broadcasting Corpo
ration (NHK) between 1941 and 1942.
Quantitative social research based on social surveys gradually became more
prevalent after 1945, due in large part to American influence. The Japanese
Literacy Survey, conducted in 1948, was monumental in the sense that its proce
dure, the construction of its questionnaire, its rigid plan and field implementation
(with nationwide random sampling) were all done "by the book", so to speak. In
deed, this survey laid the groundwork for all subsequent Japanese social surveys.
Even today, it is still praised as an ideal model for survey methodology.
Since the Japanese Literacy Survey various other public opinion surveys have
been carried out by the news media, including newspaper publishers and the Japan
Broadcasting Corporation NHK with its TV Program Preference Survey. In 1949,
to gather information about public opinions and attitudes, the National Public
Opinion Institute was established by the national government as a para-fiscal orga
nization to carry out surveys. This institution was later succeeded by the Council
of the Prime Minister's Office, an organization which was later followed by the
Bureau of Information to the Public whose function continues to this day.
The years between 1945 and 1955 can be characterized as the period marking
the origin and creation of Japanese social surveys. During this time, survey meth
ods and questionnaires were developed. It was here that the basic characteristics
of Japanese social survey methods were formed, including random sampling tech
niques, field work methodologies and questionnaire design. Later, with the devel
opment of computer technology and software programs such as SPSS and SAS,
quantitative analytic methods spread including such approaches as correspondence
analysis. It was also at this time that consecutive time series and trend surveys
were first implemented.
The Japanese National Character Studies began in 1953 and have been carried
out every five years since then by the Research Committee of the Institute of Sta
tistical Mathematics in Tokyo. The Social Stratification and Social Mobility Sur
veys (SSM) were begun in 1955 under the sponsorship of the Japan Sociological
Quantitative Social Research in Germany and Japan 11
Society. These surveys have been conducted every ten years since then. Also
worthy of mention is the "Public Opinion Survey Regarding People's Everyday
Lives," begun by the Information Office of the Prime Minister in 1958 and con
ducted annually since then. The Time Budget Survey Study was resumed in 1960
and is now conducted every five years by the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation
and the Broadcasting Cultural Research Institute.
Given recognition of the growing importance of consecutive and time series
as well as trend surveys, a Public Opinion Survey regarding Social Attitudes has
been carried out every year since 1989 by the Information Section of the Japanese
Prime Minister's Office. The Broadcasting Survey Cultural Research Institute has
been conducting the Japanese Attitudes Survey every five years since 1973. Addi
tionally, a number of other research institutions, publishers and broadcasters, and
private companies, as well as the Prime Minister's Office, have seen the impor
tance of detecting trends in public opinion by way of surveys, which are carried
out annually or at some other fixed time interval.
Japanese election predition surveys are particularly noteworthy. For various
elections, many newspaper publishers and broadcasters have developed rigorous
public opinion surveys for predicting election outcomes. Indeed, Japan considers
itself unique in this regard in that these organizations are extremely competitive
about their abilities to accurately predict election results. These companies and or
ganizations have sought the advice and participation of experts in quantitative
social research and have developed sophisticated prediction and evaluation metho
dologies. They also have always actively investigated the validity of these metho
dologies. Indeed, these surveys have made a significant contribution to the devel
opment of quantitative social research and its methodologies. Therefore, Japan's
quantitative social studies are based in large part on surveys and the data gene
rated from them.
The number of surveys -excluding market research -peaked in 1979 with 946
studies. Since then, survey work fluctuated around the average of 899 surveys a
year. This roughly corresponds to the quantity of survey work in Germany. As in
Germany, most surveys used random samples and had sample sizes between 1,000
to 3,000. Unlike Germany, larger samples with between 3,001 to 10,000 cases
were quite frequent, with 24.2 % of the total. Nearly 5 % of the surveys employed
samples of more than 10,000 cases. These were especially frequent in studies
commissioned by four of the large media. Conversely, the samples of work done
for university scholars were quite small.
12 Erwin K. Scheuch and Chikio Hayashi
Figure 1: Number of public opinion surveys by sponsoring organization
(1975-1990)
1000 - -----------------------------------------
900
800
700
\:C 600
u>.. J
c;,,:
::::>
V1
~ 500 ~-----------.-----------------------------------
c;,,:
u..J
c::J
::::::E
~ 400 ..J-------------------------- 7
300
/
Prdecture'5
~-------=------------___; __ </
200
; ... ~~!.--... - ,- .. -- ~-,-. ........ .
~i-<~""~"'--A ~M'dl'
100 ~ ,~ "'0
~Olher
_'-.--_-.~ual C ernmen(
;0!2'. ~"" '" ~'" 0g>- Oo~ J "~" ,c~..o.. .0;.c.'.>-. ;;c;;- ';cc"o- "0~'"> r«~-> c<~o0 ''c""o 0~" "
YEAR
(The data and the figure are taken from Shigeru Yamada and Nicolaos E. Synodinos:
Public Opinion Surveys in Japan. In: International Journal of Public Opinion Research,
vol. 6, no. 2, summer 1994, p. 118-138)
