Press Release
Takako Nagara, Kaoru Hashizume
info@candlewick.co.jp
Tel: +81-3-3498-2770

Part Two Of A Lifestyle Survey Find Women Spend The Same Amount Of TimeOn Housework As They Do For Their Free Time
A majority of women spend an average of 4.6 hours a day freely on themselves
April 27, 2012 – Candlewick, a leading PR agency in Tokyo is pleased to announce
the latest results of a survey conducted on women’s lifestyles. The second part of thesurvey looked at how women use their time and was conducted online among 600
women aged 20 to 59 years old.
Women spend on average 4.6 hours freely on themselves
The survey revealed that women spend an average of 4.6 hours free time a day onweekdays. Almost 20 percent of all respondents answered their free time totals
more than an hour but less than two while almost 60 percent answered they spend
more than 4 hours a day for themselves (Data 1).
As the number of women working increases year on year, the survey separated theresults into two groups – women working and unemployed women. The average
free time among unemployed women was 5 hours, which exceeded that of women
working (3.4 hours), by approximately 1.5 hours. There was not much difference inthe amount of free time among women working and unemployed women in their30s. On the other hand, those in their 40s and 50s, who no longer are as engaged inraising children, the amount of free time spent among unemployed women (morethan 4 hours) was twice that of working women (less than 2 hours) (Data 2).
When asked how much free time women ideally wish to have, 40% answered morethan 4 hours. In particular, women in their 40s and 50s wished to have more than 4hours per day of free time. Having reached a certain point in the lives, the results
indicate women consider it important to have a certain amount of free time in order
to find a balance between motherhood, being a wife and working professionally.
The most popular way to spend free time was watching TV
When asked, what do you usually do in your free time, the most popular response
among all age groups was watching TV. Checking e-mails and using a computercame in second with shopping a surprising third (Data 3). This result may indicatethe popularity of TV shopping channels and a rise in Internet shopping that enableconsumers to shop while at home.

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High potential among women’s consumption desire
Women spend an average of 4.3 hours a day doing housework on weekdays, thesame amount spent on free time, as stated above. More than one hour, but less thanan hour and half was spent cooking, followed by cleaning (30 minutes to an hour)
and tidying up (30 minutes to less than an hour).
When asked, what would you like to do if you have more free time, and how muchmoney would you spend towards it, many answered they would like to start somekind of culture activity and would spend between 20,000 and 30,000 yen. Someanswered they would like to shop more and would spend between 30,000 and
50,000 yen.
With home-meal replacement services and homemaker services rising and thedevelopment of high performance home electronics, time spent on housework islikely to decrease. With the potential increase in women’s free time, consumption
among this group is expected to grow in the future.
###About Candlewick
Candlewick is a PR agency that offers Integrated Marketing and Communication(IMC) services which includes research, product development, product strategy, andpromotions primarily for consumer goods such as interior products, and luxury andpremium products and services. We look forward to conducting unique surveys fromwomen’s point of view and distributing news releases on regular basis.
For more information please visit www.candlewick.co.jp
Summary of Findings
Survey panel: 600 women in their 20s – 50s Methodology: Online survey
Survey period: March 13 - 15, 2012 Research firm: My Voice Communications, Inc.
For further information about the survey, please follow the link below:
http://www.candlewick.co.jp/en/topics/pdf/20120427_CDW_DataE.pdf

2

Appendix(Data 1)
How much time do you spend for yourself on weekdays?

(Data 2)
Amount of free time among different age groups
30s
Working Women

Unemployed Women(Data 3)How do you usually spend your free time?

340s50s