April Fools's report by Asahi newspaper

When the "be between" supplement in the Asahi Shimbun (April 1) conducted a survey of 3,098 Japanese via the Internet, it confirmed that the custom of "Eepuriru fuuru" (April fool) has few followers in Japan. Precisely half the respondents voiced no opinion, neither liking nor disliking the notion of playing pranks on April Fool's Day. Of the remaining half, 30% said they were against the practice, as opposed to just 20% who voted in its favor.

The top reason given for their dislike to the practice, stated by 423 subjects, was to the effect that they "didn't know what sort of scope of gags would be permissible." This was followed by "this kind of thing is difficult to understand in Japan" (378 responses); "I'd worry whether the joke will be understood" (251); "telling fibs goes against the grain of one's conscience" (174); and finally "no time for such nonsense, or it's not worth the bother" (161).