92.3% Feel Uneasy Without Their Phone: The Other Number in Japan's Distracted-Phone Survey
In a Japanese survey, 28.9% of people who use their phone while doing something else have no intention of stopping, and 92.3% feel uneasy without a phone. Here is why that figure is not the same as the 88.8% you may have seen.
“Nine in ten feel uneasy without their phone” is a headline that comes around every time a new survey lands. Look closely and the figure is sometimes 92.3% and sometimes 88.8%. They come from two different surveys asking two different groups, and neither one says what the headline implies. Let’s open them up.
Two separate surveys, one fieldwork window
Job Soken, the research arm of Persol Career, surveyed 606 working adults in Japan aged 20 to 59 online between 6 and 11 November 2024, and published the results as two separate releases.
| Release | Published | Main themes |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Survey on Smartphone Use | 25 Nov 2024 | Phone use while doing something else, walking while using a phone, intention to stop |
| 2024 Survey on Smartphone Reliance | 2 Dec 2024 | Self-reported overuse, daily minutes, knock-on effects |
The second one supplies the figures quoted most often on this site — 264.7 minutes a day, the breakdown of reported effects. This article is about the first one, which gets quoted far less.
The base for 92.3% is 477 people, not 606
In the Survey on Smartphone Use, 78.7% of the 606 respondents said they regularly use their phone while doing something else — 477 people. Those 477 were then asked whether being without a phone makes them uneasy: 92.3% said yes, made up of 22.9% “very uneasy”, 33.3% “uneasy” and 36.1% “somewhat uneasy”.
The 88.8% figure comes from the other release, where the question went to the 450 people who said they overuse their phone. The wording looks almost identical; the group being asked is not. What to do when that unease shows up is covered in what to try when being without your phone makes you anxious.
Neither number supports “nine in ten working adults feel uneasy without a phone”. What they support is narrower: among people who use their phone while doing something else, and among people who say they overuse theirs, roughly nine in ten report some unease. Handling figures with different bases side by side is the subject of how much time does the average person spend on their phone?.
The 28.9% who are not trying to stop
The same 477 people were asked whether they intend to stop using their phone while doing something else. 28.9% said they do not: 7.3% “definitely not”, 13.6% “not intending to” and 8.0% “probably not”.
Set against the widely quoted “77.6% want to cut down”, that looks like a contradiction. It is not, because the two questions are about different things — one about overuse in general, one about a specific habit.
| Figure | Release | Base | Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| 77.6% want to cut down | Smartphone Reliance | 450 who report overuse | Do you want to cut down overall? |
| 28.9% not intending to stop | Smartphone Use | 477 who use phones while busy | Will you stop doing it? |
| 92.3% feel uneasy | Smartphone Use | 477 who use phones while busy | Does being without a phone unsettle you? |
What the three together show is that wanting to cut down and wanting to keep certain uses are held at the same time. The free-text answers make that concrete: people described checking maps and transit directions on the move, and needing the phone in hand because their transit card lives on it.
Not wanting to stop is not the same as not noticing
There is a second split worth keeping. Of the 606 respondents, 61.5% said they regularly use their phone while walking (7.9% “often”, 15.3% “yes”, 38.3% “somewhat”). Of those 373 people, 64.6% said they do it without thinking about it.
The uses you would defend — maps, payments, a message from family — are chosen. The minutes that go by without your noticing are not. Mixing the two is what makes a plan collapse in week two, because the fix for one does nothing for the other. Reading survey data on what people actually overuse is covered in reading the survey data on smartphone overuse.
The same release also found that 85.3% of the 606 respondents have felt at risk around people walking while using a phone. For a worked example of taking the device out of one specific situation rather than all of them, see keeping phones off the table at meals.
What to do today (5 minutes)
The useful output of reading this survey is your own version of the two numbers.
- Write down three uses you would not give up (maps, payments, family messages)
- Fix those three on the always-allowed side
- Write down one moment where you open the phone without deciding to (waiting at a crossing, in a lift)
- Change that one moment only, and leave it a week
Trying to push everything away puts the 92.3% in charge. Deciding what stays is what makes room to move anything else.
Sources
- Job Soken (Persol Career), “2024 Survey on Smartphone Use”: 606 working adults in Japan registered with JobQ Town, nationwide, aged 20–59, fielded online 6–11 November 2024, published 25 November 2024. Of the 606, 78.7% (477 people) use a phone while doing something else and 61.5% while walking; of the 373 who walk and use a phone, 64.6% do so without thinking; 85.3% of the 606 have felt at risk. The 28.9% not intending to stop and the 92.3% who feel uneasy were asked of the 477: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000226.000013597.html
- Job Soken (Persol Career), “2024 Survey on Smartphone Reliance”: the same profile of 606 working adults in Japan, fielded online 6–11 November 2024, published 2 December 2024. 74.3% of the 606 (450 people) report overusing their phone; the 77.6% who want to cut down, the 88.8% who feel uneasy without a phone and the 264.7-minute daily average were all asked of those 450: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000227.000013597.html
This article summarises published survey data and is not medical diagnosis or advice.
FAQ
- What share of people feel uneasy without their phone?
- In Job Soken's 2024 Survey on Smartphone Use (606 working adults in Japan, fielded November 2024), 92.3% of the 477 respondents who regularly use their phone while doing something else said they feel uneasy without one. That breaks down as 22.9% very uneasy, 33.3% uneasy and 36.1% somewhat uneasy.
- Which is right, 92.3% or 88.8%?
- Both, because they are different questions in different releases. The 92.3% comes from the Survey on Smartphone Use and was asked of the 477 people who use their phone while doing something else; the 88.8% comes from the Survey on Smartphone Reliance and was asked of the 450 people who said they overuse their phone. The bases differ, so the two cannot be added or ranked against each other.
- Why do 28.9% say they have no intention of stopping?
- The survey did not ask why, so no cause can be claimed. The researchers note that in the same survey 92.3% of those people said they feel uneasy without a phone, and suggest that unease sits behind the answer.
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