A new, although not unexpected findings were summarized in the article posted at the web site of The Daily Yomiuri (with omissions):

Surveys feel pinch of privacy / Information protection law making public opinion hard to tap

The law that went into full effect last year to protect personal privacy is impairing the ability of pollsters to collect public opinions for the purpose of administrative and academic research. The full enactment of the Personal Information Protection Law and limits on access to Basic Resident Register files is making it much harder for pollsters and researchers to gather information on the opinions of citizens. Even though the surveys are carried out with the cooperation of citizens, an increasing number of people refuse to cooperate and local governments have refused researchers access to Basic Resident Register information.

…In October, a panel of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry decided to allow Basic Resident Register information to be used for academic research, while proposing prohibiting access for business purposes. Surveys ordered by the central government and other public entities have faced similar problems. Before the law’s enactment, response rates for surveys by public entities were about 10 points higher than those of surveys conducted by private companies. But since spring, when the law came into effect, the response rates of the public surveys began falling remarkably. The rates are now close to those of private company surveys. ..Survey workers were often turned away at the door before explaining the purposes of the survey in many cases. When the center asked survey workers for the reasons people refused to respond in November, many replied that the visits themselves were disliked, and the workers were thought to be pushing business scams. Partly because of malevolent home-visit sales and ‘It’s me’ frauds, people tend to link proper surveys with swindling. (Feb. 15, 2006)

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