Abstract
This study introduces the real working situations of mail survey practices in Japan and also examines the effects of a number of mail response inducement techniques and their combinations on rates and speed of response as follows: how many questionnaires were returned as undeliverable by the post office on average; using S-shape curve to estimate response rates; discrepancies between the date filled out questionnaires and the date mailed it; quality of contents answered including questionnaire item omission, who answers questionnaires, stability or consist ency and accuracy of responses; comparing respondents composition of demographic character istics with the distribution of the registers to resident's cards; comparison of demographic characteristics and response quality of early versus late respondents; effects of telephone call and postcard follow-ups on returns; effects of questionnaire appearence on responses including different combinations of postage on outgoing and return envelopes, survey sponsorship labeling, colored questionnaire paper, double-sided printing versus single-sided printing questionnaires, perceived questionnaire size and length.
