The purpose of this survey was to further enhance the academic and social contributions that primatology in Japan has made to date by identifying the current needs of Primate Society of Japan (PSJ) members and what is needed to create an environment in which members can have open discussion.
An online survey was conducted over a 46-day period from August 16 to September 30, 2022, targeting members of the PSJ as of August 16, 2022. The number of responses was 159, and the response rate was 35.8%, as there were 444 members at the time of the survey. Of the 159 responses, 155 were valid, of which 13 respondents were unable to make multiple selections due to incomplete answers, so we analyzed the responses of 142 respondents to Q8-2 and Q10-1, and the results of the 155 respondents to other questions are presented.
The survey was divided into two basic categories: one for analysis as the opinions of the respondents as a whole, and the other for comparison among generations to analyze and compare their different perspectives. In the case of comparison among generations, the 20s and 30s were classified as the younger generation (n=55), the 40s and 50s as the middle generation (n=69), and the 60s, 70s and 80s as the veteran generation (n=31). For multiple-choice questions, the overall ratio of the number of responses for each option to the total number of respondents is described, and for each age class, the ratio of the number of responses for each option in each class to the total number of respondents in each class is described. Concerning free descriptions, categories were extracted by coding the entire descriptions, referring to Sakai's (2001) method, and the text showed the resulting category-descriptions in < >.
Through this questionnaire, we have identified some possible ways to enhance the academic and social contribution of the PSJ by making a forum for open discussion among members of the society with diverse backgrounds, including younger generations. The future of PSJ should continue to be discussed among the members of the new forum. The English results are shown in the supplementary document.
