Changes in belief systems, quality of life issues and social conditions over 25 years in post-war Japan

Abstract

The data, which are analyzed in the paper, are based on the continuing nation wide random sample surveys which have been conducted every five years over 25 years since 1953 in Japan by the Research Committee on the Study of Japanese National Character of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics. The importance of the changes in belief systems and ways of thinking is insisted. It is remarked that only the simple tabulations by various breakdowns and simple cross-tabulations among the 2 or 3 questions do not always reveal the changes of belief systems and ways of thinking. The statistical method of principal component analysis of categorical data, which is called theory of quantification of response pattern (quantification method III) and equivalent to Benzecri's correspondence analysis, is effectively adopted to reveal them. The consistency and the features of change of them over 25 years in post-war Japan emerge. This paper also gives useful examples how to use the quantification method III.