ABSTRACT
The shifts in a society’s mentality over time can be described in strict numerical terms only by comparing the results of surveys taken at different times, in which both the questions and the response options are identically worded. This seems obvious, and yet such identical sets of data from different times are quite scarce, as researchers well know. One of the main merits of the survey discussed here is precisely such consistency. Entitled ‘Mentality of the Japanese,’ it was conducted in 1973 and again in 1978 by NHK, the national broadcasting organization. By comparing the data from the two administrations of the survey, it is possible to grasp in objective, quantitative terms the tremendous shifts which occurred during the 1970s in the mentality of the younger generation of Japanese (or at the least, in its outward expression).
