A survey of leisure time activities has found that 65% of Japanese people don’t go anywhere at the weekend. The survey, which was conducted by polling company iBridge, asked 2000 men and women between the ages of 20 and 60 what they did over the weekend of September 26-27, 2020. Sixty-five percent of them said that they hadn’t been anywhere and had opted to stay at home.

Of those who did leave their home, a third went out to eat in their local neighbourhood. Only 3.5% spent the night away from home. It confirms that many people are refraining from going out, much less traveling, for fear of contracting the coronavirus infection.

Of those who spent the night away from home, 59.7% travelled in a private car, with many people saying they tried to avoid contact with others while they were away from home, due to the spread of the coronavirus infection. Fifty-eight per cent of respondents said they worried about catching the coronavirus when they were traveling.

Breaking down responses by age, the survey found that the younger the respondent, the more likely he or she was to go out.

iBridge conducted a similar survey in late August. By comparing results from the two surveys, the pollsters confirmed that slightly more people went out in September than did in August, and the number of overnight stays was slightly up too.

Comparing the two surveys also showed that the number of people dissuaded from travelling for fear of contracting the coronavirus has decreased slightly.

The results of the survey will come as some relief to the government, which has been hoping that its “Go To” campaign will encourage people to travel within Japan. The campaign was launched on July 22nd in an attempt to help the country’s tourist sector, which has been hard hit by the downturn in holiday bookings.

For more details of the survey and its results, see here.

If you have any questions about the survey, you can contact Freeasy at:
f-project@ibridge.co.jp or call them on 03-5781-8480.