Marine Faye Hitomi Sekine Cultural Consumption in Japan Descriptive analysis We used data collected by Japanese government to clarify our main research question, ‘How the spending on culture differs according the status?’ To make clear status differentiation, we classified people’s income level into three and recoded them according to their income; from 0 to 2.99 million-yen per year as 1, income from 3 million to 7.99 million-yen as 2, and income more than 8 million-yen as 3. That’s because Japanese average income is 4.2 million-yen per year. Then we verified our hypotheses. Maybe add some description of Japan income distribution (such as histogram from government statistics) so we see that your recoding is correct. First hypothesis is that more people with high pay jobs participate in high cultural activities which cost more money than people with low pay jobs. We focused on numbers of participants in each cultural activity to prove it. These are tables of rate who watch movie in cinema and at home. First describe the cultural activities you are analyzing and order them according to their cost? Mean of rate who go to cinema income level both sexes participation female participation male participatio 1 38.5 45.6 31.5 2 49.9 58 41.8 3 51.6 57.6 45.6 The table format is still wrong L I will reformat the next table to show you. Also please name the values, I don’t want to decipher chat 1, 2, 3 means Mean of rate who watch movie at home This is how your tables should look like income level both sexes participation female participation male participatio 1 51 55.1 46.9 2 64 67.3 60.8 3 60.4 57.9 62.8 And even better, combine more information into one table such as: Males Females Total Cinema Home Cinema Home Cinema Home Lower 31.5 46.9 45.6 55.1 38.5 51.0 Middle 41.8 60.8 58.0 67.3 49.9 64.0 Upper 45.6 62.8 57.6 57.9 51.6 60.4 So now we can very easily compare both phenomenon. We suddenly see that in all income categories is more common to watch movies at home We take going to cinema as high culture and watching movie at home as popular culture because the former activity takes more money than the latter one. We can say that the rate of people who go to cinema increases as income increases. Unlike this case, the rate of people who watch movie at home does not increase with the increasing of income. People with middle class income most often watch movie at home. It means that while high status group people tend to go to cinema, all status people watch movie at home. Thus, our first hypothesis is correct. Second hypothesis is that Social class determines what kind of culture one would be interested in. We also used data about numbers of participants in each cultural activity. We assumed that certain culture is consumed by certain status people, which means that there must be some culture consumed almost only by one income level people. We made table in addition to tables used to support first hypothesis. Mean of participation rate who go to karaoke income level both sexes participation female participation male participatio 1 32.5 34.4 30.7 2 36.3 38.7 33.9 3 31 24.6 37.4 As this table shows, there is no cultural activity consumed by particular status people. Though high culture is consumed mostly by high status people, they consume pop culture as well. However, we found that gender rather than social status determine. This is table about flower arrangement. Mean of rate who practice Japanese flower arrangement income level both sexes participation female participation male participatio 1 1.9 3 0.26 2 1.9 3.6 0.22 3 5.3 10.4 0.28 Since flower arrangement is taken as high cultural activity in Japan, high status people tend to practice it, but gender significantly affect its participation rate. Among all income level group, very few men practice flower arrangement. Most participant are women. We think that’s because flower arrangement was traditionally considered as preparation for married life. Women were needed to be good at flower arrangement t show they were well educated. Nowadays, flower arrangement is not necessary skill for marriage no longer, but people still think flower arrangement is for women. Thus, our second hypothesis social class determines what kind of culture one would be interested in should be changed into gender rather than social status determines what kind of culture one would be interested in. Very good interpretation, but my objections against your tables are still valid – change the format and combine more information into one table J Third hypothesis is that the time you spend on culture is determinate by the type of culture. For example, watching movie in cinema takes more money than watching movie at home, but people watch movie at home more often. To test our hypothesis, we focused on data about days people send on cultural activities. Mean of days for going to cinema per year income level both sexes participation female participation male participatio 1 8.9 5.8 12 2 5.5 5.6 5.4 3 6 6.7 5.3 Mean of days for watching movie at home per year income level both sexes participation female participation male participatio 1 42.8 35.5 50.1 2 30.3 27.7 33 3 32.3 34.2 30.5 The tables again – format and combination Obviously, people spend more days on watching movie at home than in cinema. Therefore, we can say our third hypothesis is correct. In addition to financial reason, going to cinema takes more time than watching movie at home. Most of high culture need time and effort than pop culture. For instance, if you want to practice flower arrangement or tea ceremony, you need to find school and buy tools for them. Contrary to high cultural activity, most pop cultural activity doesn’t need time and effort. You can participate them whenever you want. We think that that’s why people prefer to participate pop cultural activity than high cultural activity. Through verifying our hypotheses, we answered three questions; 1What status people consume more culture in Japan, and does income level affect the differences? 2How much time they spend on it? 3And on what type of culture they are interested in the most? Which were defined in 1^st assignment to clarify our main research question. The answer to our main research question is that ‘People with high income tend to consume high culture but spend less time than pop culture. However, there is not culture that is consumed by certain status group. Social class does not determine what kind of culture one would be interested in.’ Good work, just correct the tables. I take 2 points because of table format and results presentation (again – the tables)