Results of the 75th Opinion Survey on the General Public's Views and Behavior (September 2018 Survey)

October 12, 2018
Public Relations Department
Bank of Japan

Survey Outline

Survey period : From August 9 to September 4, 2018.
Population of the Survey : Individuals living in Japan who are at least 20 years of age.
(This round of the survey was not conducted in the three prefectures affected by the heavy rain in July 2018; namely, Hiroshima, Okayama, and Ehime prefectures in western Japan.)
Sample size : 3,805 people (1,963 people [i.e., 51.6 percent of the overall sample size] provided valid responses to questions).
Sampling method : Stratified two-stage random sampling method.
Survey methodology : Questionnaire survey (mail survey method).

Impression of Present Economic Conditions Compared with One Year Ago Percent, percentage points
	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)
Have improved (A)	8.3	9.6	8.6	7.4
Have remained the same	70.9	68.0	72.6	71.3
Have worsened (B)	20.2	22.0	18.5	20.7
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-11.9	-12.4	-9.9	-13.3

Outlook for Economic Conditions One Year from Now Percent, percentage points
	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)
Will improve (A)	8.6	9.3	8.2	9.4
Will remain the same	67.0	65.6	66.7	63.3
Will worsen (B)	24.1	24.5	24.8	26.5
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-15.5	-15.2	-16.6	-17.1

Impression of Present Household Circumstances Compared with One Year Ago Percent, percentage points
	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)
Have become better off (A)	6.5	6.1	7.1	7.2
Difficult to say	52.4	51.8	51.7	53.0
Have become worse off (B)	40.2	41.4	40.2	39.1
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-33.7	-35.3	-33.1	-31.9

Perception of the Present Price Levels Compared with One Year Ago Percent
	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)
Have gone up significantly	7.6	14.8	10.9	11.1
Have gone up slightly	59.5	58.7	58.9	58.0
Have remained almost unchanged	30.0	23.7	26.9	28.8
Have gone down slightly	2.2	1.8	2.3	1.2
Have gone down significantly	0.1	0.4	0.5	0.3

Outlook for Price Levels One Year from Now Percent
	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)
Will go up significantly	8.4	6.9	8.3	9.3
Will go up slightly	67.2	67.0	69.1	66.7
Will remain almost unchanged	21.6	22.8	20.3	20.9
Will go down slightly	1.8	2.5	1.5	1.9
Will go down significantly	0.1	0.0	0.2	0.3

One of the Bank's Objectives Is to Achieve Price Stability Percent
	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)
Know about it	30.5	-	31.4	-
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	46.0	-	43.9	-
Have never heard of it	23.3	-	24.4	-

The Bank Has Set the Price Stability Target at 2 Percent in terms of the Year-on-Year Rate of Change in the CPI Percent
	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)
Know about it	27.3	29.0	27.1	30.6
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	33.0	36.4	32.0	37.5
Have never heard of it	39.4	33.6	40.8	31.4

The Bank Has Been Implementing Aggressive Monetary Easing Measures to Achieve the Price Stability Target of 2 Percent Percent
	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)
Know about it	41.0	29.3	39.1	30.9
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	36.6	39.9	37.7	41.0
Have never heard of it	22.1	29.5	23.0	27.7

The Bank Has Been Conducting "Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE) with Yield Curve Control" Percent
	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)
Know about it	22.3	16.3	21.0	20.1
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	36.3	34.7	35.2	34.7
Have never heard of it	40.8	47.8	43.5	44.4

Confidence in the Bank Percent
	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)
Confident	13.0	-	13.4	-
Somewhat confident	29.7	-	29.5	-
Difficult to say	46.6	-	46.7	-
Not particularly confident	7.6	-	6.9	-
Not confident	2.6	-	2.7	-

E-mail : prdmail@boj.or.jp