世論 What Japan Thinks

This Japan Times article (well, it’s just a translation, the original weekly tabloid is more to blame) on kiddie fiddling teachers features the following frustratingly incomplete statistic.

Of the 166 cases, 46.4% of the victims were students, while 2.4% were graduates.

Eh? What happened to the other 51.2%? Do they mean that 46.4% were current students of the kiddy fiddling teacher? This sort of hopelessly incomplete datum point just leaves me all hanging in the air!

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This page at HotLink (or whatever the official English title is) has the results of a survey that seems very dubious to me.

Q1: Do you understand “blog”?

Yes	92.2%
No	7.8%

Oops, alarm bells are ringing! According to The Register, around the start of the year 62% of USA-based internet users did not know what the term meant.
I therefore suggest that this survey is not based on a random selection of users, but somehow heavily biased towards bloggers. Let’s look at the sample used then.

Sex:

Male	49.5%
Female	50.5%

Occupation:

Employee	47.5%
Self-Employed	4.9%
Full-time housewife	23.3%
Part-timer	11.7%
Student	2.9%
Others	9.7%

Age:

20-29	28.2%
30-39	37.0%
40-49	21.3%
50-59	11.6%
60+	1.9%

Oops, a definitely young person oriented survey, with perhaps a larger than average number of employees. With that pinch of salt taken, let us proceed with the other questions.

Q2: Have you ever used a blog-only search engine?

Yes	22.3%
No	77.7%

Q3: Do you think you’ll try using a blog-only search engine in the future?

I want to try to use one	54.4%
I don’t think I want to use one	45.6%

Q4: Have you made use of blogs or net-based word-of-mouth to gather information?

Yes	61.2%
No	38.8%

Q5: For what purpose have you used blogs or net-based word-of-mouth to gather information?

Companies	14.3%
Products	68.3%
Politics	4.8%
Arts (includes actors?)	39.7%
Current affairs	23.8%
Business information	11.1%
Music, etc entertainment information	31.7%
Others	23.8%
No answer	0.0%

Q6: Regarding your answers for Q5, which blogs or net-based word-of-mouth gathered information was usable (highly trustworthy)?

Companies	7.9%
Products	52.4%
Politics	3.2%
Arts (includes actors?)	14.3%
Current affairs	12.7%
Business information	7.9%
Music, etc entertainment information	15.9%
Others	22.2%
No answer	0.0%

Looks like people have major trust issues with the web, which is good, I suppose, since there’s a lot of nonsense out there! It’s interesting that the others category information was taken to be the most reliable - I wonder what that was?

Q7: In the coming general election do you think blogs will have influence?

They will	52.4%
They won’t	47.6%

Q8: In relation to the coming general election, do you think you want to consult blogs or net-based word-of-mouth?

I want to consult it	2.9%
If it’s valid information I want to consult it	62.1%
I won’t consult it much	14.6%
I won’t consult it at all	20.4%

Q9: In the future, do you think blogs or net-based word-of-mouth will influence elections or public opinion-forming?

Yes	72.8%
No	27.2%

Q10: In the future, do you think blogs will become an effective means of information gathering?

Yes	84.5%
No	15.5%

Sigh, once again blogs are being overestimated by the general public. I share The Register’s disdain for them as an effective medium for anything other than massaging the ego of the writer, especially when opinions are being expressed. The first thing I always do when reading a new blog is wonder what is the writer’s angle. Most blogs end up in an incentious ring of mutual back-slapping and cross-linking, where truth is represented by the number of hangers-on you can attract, all hoping to bask in some reflected glory. This ring of cross-linking also has the effect of gumming up Google, promoting ideas not based on the quality of the content but the quantity of the fan-boys.

From the Tokyo Shimbun, I see the following opinion poll has been published.

3,600 people from all over the country were interviewed by telephone for the poll. The question was “Which party’s candidate will you vote for?”

For the LDP, 43.4% said they would be voting for them in the single-member constituency vote, around the same percentage as in the last lower house election in 2003. In the proportional representation race, 40.9% said they would, up from 35.0% in the last election.

For the DPJ, 23.4% will vote for them in the single-member constituencies, and 24.2% in the proportional representation vote. This second figure is down over 13 percentage points from the last election.

For the other parties, New Komeito is up in the single-member constituencies, but drastically down in the proportional representation vote. The communists and the SDP are down in both votes. The People’s
New Party and New Party Nippon register less than 1% in both votes.

10-20% are still to decide which party to support in both votes.

Next, 51.0% want an LDP-led adminstration versus 34.8% wanting the DPJ. This preference for the DPJ is greatly increased (compared to what, it is does not say!)

53.9% support the present (well, ex-) cabinet, versus 39.0% who do not. As for the upper house rejecting the Post Office privatisation bill, 51.1% said it wasn’t a good thing, versus 38.6% who approved of it.

Significant differences between male and female opinion were noted.

49.7% of men want an LDP-led adminstration versus 39.1% wanting the DPJ, a difference of 10.6 percentage points. For women, 52.3% want the LDP versus 30.4% for the DPJ, a difference of 21.9 percentage points,
clearly indicating that the DPJ find it difficult to attract support from women.

This is a very detailed survey, but again there seems to be a lack of analysis of the New Komeito position (can you tell I’m an NK supporter by my repeated harping on about them?), and the electoral pact between them and the LDP. I should track down some historical opinion polls to find out how the opinion polls tracked the NK position versus the actual result last election.

Found this survey at BizMarketing regarding
portable music players. The fieldwork was carried out over the Internet by members of BizMarketing Survey (must look into that to see if there’s free money for taking surveys!) from April 27th to May 9th of this year, with 4,279 respondents.

Q: What brand first comes to mind when thinking of portable music
players?

iPod	72.6%
Walkman	9.1%
Other (or none)	18.3%

Q: What type of portable music player do you use the most?

MD player	40.8%
CD player	28.0%
iPod series	13.4%
Other hard disk or flash memory player	17.8%

Q: When you bought your portable music player (or when you will buy)
what are the (up to) 3 most important things?

Price	61.0%
Size/weight	43.2%
Design	31.5%
Audio quality	27.0%
Maker/brand	25.6%
Usability	23.9%
Can record lots of of tracks	15.6%
Long playback time	12.8%
Type of recording media	11.2%
Features other than music	2.7%
Others	2.1%

Q: What features of the new Sony Network Walkman NW-HD5 are attractive
to you? (Select up to 3)

Can record lots of of tracks	51.1%
Long playback time	39.9%
Maker/brand	31.4%
Size/weight	22.0%
Design	21.7%
Features other than music	16.2%
Type of recording media	15.3%
I don’t feel attracted to it	12.9%
Price	8.6%
Others	0.7%

Q: Do you want to use the new Sony Network Walkman NW-HD5?

	Regular portable audio player users (n=2,395)	All respondents (n=4,279)
I want to	11.3%	7.5%
Somewhat want to	35.6%	29.2%
Neither want or don’t want to	32.4%	37.4%
Somewhat don’t want to	11.1%	12.3%
Don’t want to	9.6%	13.6%

Q: Do you want to purchase the new Sony Network Walkman NW-HD5?

	Regular portable audio player users (n=2,395)	All respondents (n=4,279)
I want to	6.8%	4.4%
Somewhat want to	28.8%	22.1%
Neither want or don’t want to	37.1%	40.0%
Somewhat don’t want to	14.7%	16.6%
Don’t want to	12.6%	17.0%

Just from looking around the train on my daily commute, it’s easy to see
that the MD player is still the strongest, although there is the
occasional iPod and the even rarer other brand of digital audio player.
I’ve seen exactly one person using a PSP as an audio player, and only
just yesterday spotted my very first mobile phone listener. Of course,
since I can recognise MDs and iPods from the headphones and remote
controller design my counting is of course biased.

In another self-selecting survey reported by ITMedia, Podcasting Juice discovers that a lot of its users want to become Podcasters. I don’t really get the whole Podcasting business, or even portable music players myself. I’d much rather read a book or just actively stare into space rather than lose myself in my own little world.

From 7th July to 14th August, Podcasting Juice got 3995 replies to its survey, 81% male, 19% female.

Q: Do you want to create a Podcast?

I already have	1.5%
I want to	38.1%
Don’t know	32.2%
Not interested	27.6%
No answer	0.7%

Ahh, it’s getting late - I’ll finish the translation tomorrow!

The every-five-years population census of Japan is due to take place this year on the first of October. All foreign people who have been living in Japan for at least three months, or plan to live for at least three months more must take part.

Here’s the obligatory cute character’s home page!

It’s quite frustrating, but at my workplace we have access to masses of surveys of our company’s products and that of our competitors too. Quite fascinating figures are contained within, but sadly company confidentiality prevents me from translating them for the benefit of my readers.

The last poll was pretty useless, so here’s a better one from Nikkei Net. This one has a reader’s panel from which participants are randomly selected, so still not as good as we can get, and will probably over-represent the ABC1 professional class.
Read the rest of this entry »

Since it’s election time here in Japan, let’s look at a survey from election.co.jp. Note that this is a self-selecting survey of web users, so please take all numbers with a very large pinch of salt!

Sample size: 4,518. Male 87.6%, female 12.3%

Q: Do you support the current cabinet?

I support them	39.4%
I somewhat support them	11.4%
Don’t know	1.2%
I somewhat do not support them	5.2%
I do not support them at all	42.5%

Q: Which party do you support?

No party	34.9%
LDP (the previous administration)	26.0%
DPJ (the opposition)	24.5%
New Komeito	5.0%
Communists	4.9%
SDP	2.0%
Liberal League	0.1%

Q: Who do you not want to hold political power?

New Komeito	37.7%
Communists	22.2%
DPJ	14.6%
LDP	12.9%
SDP	7.4%
Liberal League	0.4%

I can’t really say to much about these figures, especially since they are probably extremely bogus, being self-selecting. However, there is a high percentage of anti-New Komeito respondents, but how much this is reflected in the real population, I cannot say, but I do know that there are a lot of very vocal antis out there!

The original Japanese text is here. The survey was carried out in October 2003 with a response of 1,417 people from the 2,000 parcipitants chosen. Sorry, but some of the religious terms are not too familiar to me, so the translation may not be very accurate.

Q1: Which of the following do you have in your house?

Shinto shelf	44.1%
Buddhist Altar	49.8%
Shinto God Charm	24.0%
Shinto Paper Offering	7.3%
Temple/Shrine Charm	26.3%
Cooking Stove God Charm	9.8%
None	24.0%
Don’t know	1.5%

Q2: Which of the following do you do:

New Year’s Temple Visit	72.6%
Obon etc Grave Visit	76.0%
Carrying a Charm	25.8%
Visiting Shrines when in Neighbourhood	24.3%
Prayers for Family or Business	22.7%
Reading Fortunes/Horoscopes	8.9%
Reading Religion-Related Books	7.3%
Zen, Yoga, Mass, etc	3.3%
None	5.7%
Don’t know	0.5%

Q3: Which of the following do you think exist?

God (or gods in general)	35.6%
Buddha	36.3%
Ancestors’ Spirits	36.3%
Heaven	12.1%
Hell	10.0%
Other Worlds (Pure Land, etc)	15.9%
Reincarnation/Rebirth	17.8%
Charms and Guards do not Exist	13.0%
Nothing Supernatural Exists	27.0%
Don’t know	10.4%

Q4: What do you think about “god” (”God”? “gods”?) and “Buddha”?

They are almost the same	22.8%
They are completely different	23.9%
They are different, but work in similar ways	23.7%
I’ve never thought about the differences	21.0%
Don’t know	8.5%

Q5: Which of the following do you take note of:

Butsu-metsu (unlucky) wedding day	42.1%
Tomobiki (unlucky) funeral day	42.8%
Purification returning from funeral	30.2%
Sleeping with head pointing northward	31.7%
The number 4	15.3%
Friday the 13th	11.9%
Unlucky year	43.8%
Direction house faces	21.2%
Name kanji stroke count	13.3%
None of them	22.5%
Don’t know	2.0%

Q6: Which of the following do you think are true:

Spoon-bending	9.9%
Blood-type & character	37.8%
Star signs & character and fate	11.9%
Mediums	18.7%
Healing/laying on hands	8.1%
Feng Shui	10.0%
Curses	14.4%
Poltergeist	5.8%
None of them	33.8%
Don’t know	10.1%

Q7: Do you have faith?

Yes	29.1%
No	70.9%

SQ: If Yes, which of the following (more than one OK)

Shinto	22.0%
Buddhism	77.2%
Christianity	7.7%
Other	3.6%
Don’t know	2.7%

Q8: Do you think that to have a happy life, religious is important?

I think it is	38.7%
I don’t think it is	44.2%

Q9: In the future, how will the relationship between Japanese and religion change?

Religion will become essential	3.4%
Religion will be needed more	10.3%
No change from now	58.5%
Religion will become less needed	13.5%
Religion will not be needed at all	4.2%
Don’t know	10.1%

Q10: Are you a member of a religious group?

Yes	8.8%
No	91.2%

SQ: If yes, which ones?

Shinto-related	4.0%
Traditional Buddhist	17.7%
Christian	12.9%
Soka Gakkai	41.9%
Other Nichiren Buddhist	3.2%
Tenri Sect	4.8%
Shinnyo-en	4.0%
Other group	9.7%
Don’t know	1.6%