世論 What Japan Thinks

Following on from the recent news about Softbank and Yahoo! buying all the outstanding shares of Vodafone Japan, itMedia published the results of a survey into mobile users’ views on Softbank entering the mobile phone market. The survey was carried out over five days at the end of March and the start of April, with 1200 people responding to a private questionnaire over the internet. The survey group consisted of 400 mobile phone users from each of the providers DoCoMo, au and Vodafone. More detailed demographic information, or where the group of users came from, is not stated.

The most interesting result is that for what people hope fill be the outcome of the deal, in particular regarding call and reception quality. It is a standing joke within the English-speaking community in Japan to call Vodafone “Borderfone” because of the perceived poor quality of reception. This survey shows that this is perhaps a valid criticism, as two in five Vodafone users are looking forward to improvements versus just a quarter of non-users.

Q1: Do you welcome Softbank buying Vodafone Japan? (Sample size=1,200)

	Welcome it	Neither for nor against it	Don’t welcome it
Vodafone	45.3%	48.3%	6.5%
DoCoMo	35.3%	60.0%	4.8%
au	39.8%	54.0%	6.3%

Q2: If Softbank starts a new brand name after buying Vodafone Japan, what sort of brand name do you think is good? (Sample size=1,200)

	Vodafone-based brand name	Softbank-based brand name	Something totally different from Vodafone or Softbank	Other	None in particular
Vodafone	37.3%	8.0%	17.0%	2.8%	35.0%
DoCoMo	22.5%	12.3%	29.8%	2.3%	33.3%
au	21.8%	12.0%	29.0%	3.3%	34.0%

Q3: Regarding their mobile phone service, what are you expecting from Softbank? (Sample size=1,200, multiple answer)

	Vodafone	DoCoMo	au
Usage cost to decrease	90.8%	81.8%	84.0%
Charging plans to diversify	50.8%	42.3%	43.0%
Mobile phone purchase price to decrease	43.8%	42.3%	38.5%
Call and reception quality to improve	40.0%	25.5%	25.5%
Mobile phone functionality to improve	39.8%	29.0%	27.8%