世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com, in conjunction with goo Research, looked at how people obtained and used audio and video contents at home. They interviewed 1,046 members of goo’s internet monitor group from all over the country by means of a private web-based questionnaire. 55.7% of the sample were female, 22.7% in their twenties, 42.6% in their thirties, 24.2% in their forrties, 7.7% in their fifties and 2.8% sixty years old or more.

The one very surprising outcome from this survey is that almost one in five has paid to download video contents! Perhaps the full results of this survey describe what type of contents people are paying for, but I have my suspicions… Conversely, only 3% admit to using P2P software.

Q1: At home, what playback system do you mainly use when listening to pre-recorded music? (Sample size=1,046)

Audio player (component stereo, CD radio cassette, etc)	54.4%
PC	23.3%
PC and audio system combination	7.6%
Portable audio player	6.2%
Other	1.3%
Don’t listen to pre-recorded music at home	7.1%

Q2: At home, what playback system do you mainly use when watching pre-recorded visual images (movies, etc)? (Sample size=1,046)

DVD player	50.6%
VCR plus television	22.7%
PC	13.4%
PC plus television	4.6%
PC plus VCR	2.5%
Other	3.3%
Don’t watch video contents at home	3.1%

Note that this question is a bit confusing. In the original Japanese, the top answer refers distinctly to a DVD player, not a DVD drive in a PC, and although there are separate figures for a VCR hooked up to a television versus to a PC, there is no data for DVD drives or DVD players hooked up to televisions; in fact, with the current range of desktop models available in Japan, the distinctions between TV, PC, DVD player and PVR are becoming increasingly blurred as all four types of functionality are being bundled into the one hardware package.

Q3: Where do you obtain your music, video, and other digital contents? (Sample size=1,046, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Rental shop	529	50.6%
Bricks and mortar store	329	31.5%
Free download from web (excluding P2P)	320	30.6%
Pay download from web	198	18.9%
From friends	171	16.3%
File sharing software	31	3.0%
Other	11	1.1%
Never obtained any digital contents	175	16.7%

Finally, when asked if they’d want to obtain different types of media even if they had to pay for it, 589 people, or 56.3%, said they’d want videos, 527, or 50.4%, wanted domestic music, and 344, or 32.9%, Western music.