世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into New Year postcards. They got 300 valid responses to their private internet-based survey from their monitor pool; exactly half were male, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, and so on up to 20.0% in their fifties.

New Year postcards are even more required than Christmas cards were back home, so this good showing by PCs and mobiles is quite surprising for me. I will look out for another survey that might indicate to whom people plan to send the virtual and real greetings to see if there is any pigeon-holing of contacts.

It’s getting time to decide on our New Year postcards; although we usually do most communication by email, there’s something tangible about a real 年賀状はがき, nengajou hagaki, New Year postcard that electronics just can’t replace. We will order the front design from some internet site, most likely, and do the addressing by specialist New Year postcard software.

For your information, next year is the Year of the 亥, inoshishi, or wild boar.

Q1: How will you prepare your New Year postcards? (Sample size=260, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Use New Years postcard software	171	65.8%
Write by hand	71	27.3%
Use other software	32	12.3%
Use a print shop	13	5.0%
Use a internet-based printing service	13	5.0%
Use a camera shop service	11	4.2%
Use silk-screen printer, etc	1	0.4%
Other	9	3.5%

This question implies that 40 people, or 13.3%, will not send New Year postcards.

Q2: How will you prepare your New Year greeting PC email? (Sample size=146, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Use Yahoo! Greetings or other card service	66	45.2%
Text only	63	43.2%
Use an image produced by myself	40	27.4%
Other	2	1.4%

This question implies that 154 people, or 51.3%, will not send New Year email.

Q3: How will you prepare your New Year greeting mobile phone email? (Sample size=144, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Text message	88	61.1%
Decomail or other similar built-in function	46	31.9%
Use greetings card service	32	22.2%
Use an image taken with built-in camera	12	8.3%
Use an image produced by myself	11	7.6%
Other	0	0.0%

This question implies that 156 people, or 52.0%, will not send New Year email.