Kirsty KawanoA SDGs survey by advertising company Dentsu has found that about half of Japanese aim to incorporate minimalism into their lifestyles and avoid plastic.
The online questionnaire was conducted in mid-January as the third in a series of surveys investigating awareness of, and interest in, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. It revealed that 29.1% of respondents had heard the term SDGs, up 13.1 percentage points from the previous year’s survey.
Throughout Japan, 1400 people aged between 10 and 79 answered questions about their awareness of, sympathy toward and intention to carry out eight SDG-related concepts: ethical consumption, minimal consumption, sharing economy, upcycling, circular economy, avoiding plastics, social good and ESG (environment, social, governance) investment.
Within the categories, avoidance of plastic gained the most support, with 54.2% of respondents saying they intend to incorporate that into their lifestyles. Minimal consumption was the next highest concept in that category, scoring 49.7%. These two concepts also held the top spots for awareness and sympathy.
Schools raise SDG awareness
In regard to the overall SDGs, awareness rose across all generations, except for women in their 60s. Male teenagers had the highest level of awareness at 55.1%, up 26.2 percentage points on year.
Students had the highest rate of awareness, compared with workers and full-time homemakers, at 45.1%, up from 24.8% the year before.
The Acting Chief of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Section, Martina Donlon, described young people as a crucial target audience. “The fact that more than 40% of students are aware of the Sustainable Development Goals speaks to the excellent work done integrating the SDGs in the school curricula in Japan,” she said.
Awareness taking the form of action in progress
Compared to 29.1% overall awareness of the SDGs, the top four concepts asked about in the survey all scored higher rates of awareness: avoidance of plastics was 70.3%, minimalism was 54.0%, a sharing economy reached 40.7%, and a circular economy, where products are designed to be reused, was 33.9%.
The two leading concepts are relatively easy to understand and have received much attention. The Marie Kondo de-cluttering boom of a few years ago cemented minimalism as a goal for many people. The idea of using a cloth bag to reduce use of plastic shopping bags has also been around for many years and become part of most Japanese people’s daily lives.
Demand for circular economy or sharing economy related products rearing its heads
The other two concepts – of a circular economy and sharing economy – are harder to understand and to carry out on one’s own. One-third of the population were aware of these terms. Sympathy toward these causes also rated well, at 44.4% for a circular economy and 32.0% for a sharing economy. These results suggest that there is demand for products and services that conform to these principles.
The percentages of intention to carry out those concepts was 28.8% for a circular economy (third place) and 21.1% for a sharing economy, which fell to fifth place in this category, just behind ethical consumption. It is possible that if more goods and services that make it easy for consumers to incorporate these principles into their daily lives were available, or better publicized, the intention readings could turn higher.
[Website] Dentsu’s SDGs survey results
