On an Average Day in Japan

By Tom Heymann

A demographic peek at the people of Japan outlines the typical daily activities of an average citizen. By the author of On an Average Day. . . and In an Average Lifetime. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449906078
• ISBN13: 9780449906071
• Release Date: August 1992
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 247 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Extremely Informative but Sometimes Falls Short

This isn't a novel or a dense history of Japan. Instead, each page simply has one factoid about Japan - and then gives comparison information to put it into context. For example, one page says that the Japanese live with 19 million pet birds - and that the US only has 13 million. On another page you learn that in one day the average Japanese man spends 9 minutes cleaning his home, while the woman spends 3 hours and 1 minute cleaning. Compare that with the US where men spend 26 minutes cleaning and women 59 minutes. The facts are fascinating. Every day Japanese births decline by 89 while in the US they go up by 216 each day. In Japan there are 534 arranged marriages and 1406 love marriages daily. It's amazing they have so many arranged marriages. They spend $4.6 million EVERY DAY on fur coats!! How about 55 million pairs of wooden chopsticks are tossed into the trash every day! Part of the issue here is that they don't compare in ways that make a lot of sense. For example they say every day in Japan that 67 people commit suicide. In the US 84 people commit suicide every day. That's interesting, but the US has FAR more people than Japan does. It would help if they gave it as a percentage of the population in addition to straight numbers. Also many times they give the Japanese stat without any comparison at all, so you don't know if their number (for example the fur coat expenditure) is high or simply normal. Still, there are many fascinating stats in here which might get your curiosity going, and send you off looking for more information on Google! Well recommended.