A COMPARISON OF THE VIABILITY OF MAIL SURVEYS IN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES

A comparison of response rates and patterns to a mail survey conducted simultaneously on random samples drawn from telephone listings in Seattle, Washington, and Kobe, Japan, is presented. When undeliverable surveys (those for which the intended respondent had moved or passed away) are subtracted from the original samples, a comparison of the differences in the response rate percentages for the two countries is found to be statistically insignificant. Adherence to the theoretical foundation of the Total Design Method is claimed to be the principal reason for success in achieving a higher response rate than predicted by Japanese scholars to the mail survey in Japan. These results show that there is potential for adapting survey research techniques developed in the United States to non-Occidental settings. In spite of the increasing social and economic interdependence of the world's peoples, little work has been done on adapting survey research techniques perfected in the United States to cross-national settings. While there have been successful cross-national mail surveys of business executives (Dawson and Dickinson, 1988; Jobber and Saunders, 1988; Keown, 1985), there are no reports in the academic literature about mail surveys conducted simultaneously on general populations in more than one country. This is unfortunate, for more cross-national research needs to be done by Americans to correct the culture bound limitations of research done in the U.S.(Green and White, 1976; Kohn, 1987). RAYMOND A. JUSSAUME, JR., iS Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology at Washington State University. YOSHIHARU YAMADA is Associate Professor of Economics at Wakayama University. This paper is based upon research supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under agreement no. 88-33574-4054. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to Don Dillman for his encouragement and insights. Public Opinion Quarterly Volume 54.219-228 ( 1990 by the American Association for Public Opinion Research Published by The University of Chicago Press / 0033-362X/90/0054-02/$2.50 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.112 on Mon, 03 Oct 2016 05:38:12 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 220 Raymond A. Jussaume, Jr., and Yoshiharu Yamada Due to their comparatively low cost, mail surveys hold great promise for cross-national studies between societies where there are high literacy rates. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate this potential by analyzing the results of a total design method (TDM) mail survey administered simultaneously in the United States and Japan. The return rates obtained demonstrate that a culturally sensitized TDM mail survey can be successfully implemented in a nonwestern setting.