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Hi Blog. Related to the debunkable claims of “Fly-jin” NJ deserting Japan in its time of need, here is an article in the media with a survey of how NJ are actually by-and-large NOT wanting to be “Fly-jin”. Good.
The problem is, it seems (after a short search) that this article has come out in English only — there is no link to the “original Japanese story” like many Mainichi articles have. So this may sadly may not be for domestic consumption. Or it may be available on Kyodo wire services (but again, not in Japanese for Mainichi readers). Sigh. Arudou Debito
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Many foreign residents wish to stay in Japan despite disaster: survey
TOKYO (Kyodo) — More than 90 percent of foreigners studying or working in Japan expressed willingness to continue staying in the country despite the March 11 disaster, according to a recent online survey by a supporting group for them.
The International Foreign Students Association conducted the survey between March 22 and 26, to which 392 people responded. Of the respondents, 60 percent were students and the remaining 40 percent were graduates, while more than 90 percent of them were from China, Taiwan and South Korea.
Those who are willing to stay in Japan said, “Because I like Japan,” or “At a time like this, I think I want to work together (with Japanese) to help the recovery,” according to the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization.
The survey also showed that 73 percent of the respondents saw information gaps between Japan and their home countries on the earthquake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear emergency, with some saying overseas news on the nuclear crisis was “excessive.”
Some respondents also pointed out that the Japanese government does not fully disclose information on the nuclear disaster.
Around 60 percent said they have not been preparing for disasters, while some voiced the need for multilingual information on disasters.
ENDS
4 comments on “Mainichi: “Many foreign residents wish to stay in Japan despite disaster: survey””
This survey, like a similar one I saw an NHK a day or so ago. fails to accurately reflect true facts because of a fallacy of composition.
As I recall it, he NHK survey reported that 68% of the people hearing the tsunami warning actually tried to evacuate to higher ground while 32% who heard the warning decided to ignore it for a variety of reasons.
The problem is, they only polled survivors. Half the people in the tsunami zone did not survive and they were not interviewed. So, it may have been more accurate to say that about one third heeded the warning and survived, one sixth ignored the warning and survived, and about half ignored the warning and did not live to tell NHK about it. These are estimates, of course, with the assumption that those that did heed the warning were able to make their way to higher ground. On the other hand, those that did not survive also did not escape.
Similarly, it is extremely unlikely that the survey by the International Foreign Students Association included people who had already left Japan for their home countries, or elsewhere. It would be interesting to hear about how many of their own members they were not able to locate in Japan after the disaster. Their ranks may have diminished substantially, before they conducted the poll, and that should have been noted.
— Agreed. It’s just sad that flawed science seems to make its way through the domestic media when it disparages NJ, but not when it says something nice.
It’s nice to have voices that pick apart the data too. That’s all part of critical thinking. But you see little of that in the domestic media, either.
If the Mainichi takes a English newswire report from AP or Kyodo (as in this case) then there is no link to a Japanese original because it’s not a Mainichi article.
If you want to find the Japanese report on which it was based then you have to find the Kyodo original. It came out two days before the English version as you can see here:
http://www.47news.jp/CN/201105/CN2011050601000477.html
— Thanks for tracking it down.
９割超が「今後も日本で」 在日外国人、一緒に復興を
今後も日本で生活を続けたい―。日本在住の外国人留学生らを対象に東日本大震災に関するアンケートを実施したところ、９割以上に当たる３６３人が震災後も日本で勉強や仕事を「続ける」「不安はあるが、続けたい」などと答えたことがこのほど分かった。
回答者は「日本が好きだから」「こういう時だからこそ一緒に頑張って日本を復興させようと思う」などの理由を挙げた。余震や福島第１原発事故の影響で、海外では日本への渡航自粛勧告や日本の農水産物の輸入規制が相次いだが、留学生らの間で日本を離れたいという考え方は少数派のようだ。
アンケートは外国人留学生の支援などを行うＮＰＯ法人「国際留学生協会」（東京）が３月２２～２６日、インターネット上で実施。同協会に登録している日本在住の外国人約１万７千人のうち、３９２人が回答した。回答者の９割以上は中国、台湾、韓国からの留学生や社会人だった。
震災や原発事故の情報について、７割以上が日本と母国の間で「違いがあった」と回答。原発事故に関する海外の報道を「過大」とする指摘のほか、「日本政府の情報は曖昧で信用できない」「情報公開が不十分。『直ちに影響がない』と強調するばかりで不安と恐怖が生じた」などの意見も。心配する母国の家族を「説得するのに疲れた」と答えた人も多かった。
また約６割が災害への備えを「していない」と回答。地震に慣れていない留学生のための地震対処マニュアルを大学などに置くことや多言語による情報発信を求める声もあった。（共同）
The other problem with this survey is it’s of students. I haven’t seen anything about “flyjin” being students, every reference to “flyjin” I’ve seen has been referring to people who left their jobs/homes/etc. when things got “difficult” (power outages, food shortages, etc.). Of course as the 1st commenter said, how do you go about surveying the population who left? The “flyjin” are gone, the one’s who returned are unlikely to admit to being “flyjin”, and the ones who staid obviously don’t fit the “flyjin” definition.
I personally don’t know anyone who has left because of the disaster. It must be those filthy rich multi-national corporation / government employees.
All my friends did (wisely) leave the radiated areas though. You’ll be a dead man to trust the government. Check out http://www.cnic.jp