9 out of 10 Japanese adults read newspapers: poll+

TOKYO, June 8 Kyodo -
More than nine out of every 10 people responding to a survey are newspaper
readers, according to a report released Monday by the Japan Newspaper
Publishers & Editors Association.
The organization surveyed 6,000 individuals aged between 15 and 69 from Oct. 8
to Nov. 1, 2009, across Japan about their use of five major kinds of media --
television, newspapers, magazines, radio and the Internet. Of the 6,000 people
polled, 3,683 or 61.4 percent responded.
Of the respondents, 99.0 percent had some form of interaction with television,
slightly down from 99.1 percent in the previous survey in 2007, and 91.3
percent with newspapers, also slightly down from 92.3 percent in 2007.
Similar figures came to 77.4 percent for magazines, up from 74.5 percent, 66.7
percent for the Internet, up from 63.3 percent, and 57.1 percent for radio, up
from 55.8 percent.
The results show that ''newspapers are a key medium indispensable in daily
life,'' the major industry group said.
The survey also indicated that the respondents had recourse to newspapers on
5.2 days per week on average, compared with 6.6 days for television. Similar
figures came to 3.8 days for the Internet, 2.3 days for radio and 1.3 days for
magazines.
Of the respondents, 89.8 percent had recourse to television every day, 62.7
percent to newspapers, 43.7 percent to the Internet, 20.5 percent to radio, and
3.8 percent to magazines.
Of the five media, newspapers came top in terms of respondents' impressions,
with 52.6 percent saying newspapers help them understand the areas and
communities in which they live. Another 50.2 percent said newspapers are an
indispensable source of information.
The survey also found that those who regard newspapers as their basic medium of
information are very interested in social and environmental affairs. In
contrast, those who rely mainly on television tend to go along with general
social trends, while those who use the Internet are apt to have peculiar
obsessions with themselves.
The survey is conducted every two years, and the latest one was the fifth since
2001.
==Kyodo
2010-06-08 23:56:18