世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey conducted by goo Research into
awareness and use of Second Life. Over three days in the middle of February 1,073 people from goo Research’s online monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Demographically, 51.5% were male, 13.0% in their teens, 23.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 21.4% in their forties, and 20.8% in their fifties. Note that at the time of the survey there is no Japanese language version of Second Life, and I am unsure as to even how well it supports Japanese language, but the launch of a fully localised version is not far off at all, it seems.

I get most of my information regarding Second Life from first The Register (possibly NSFW material) and second Something Awful (definitely NSFW!), so my view of it is, shall we say, rather skewed. I have no intention of taking part myself, as I’ve never been much for socialising in my First Life, let alone the Second. Quite frankly it all sounds too scary!

Coincidentaly, I also got my very first Japanese Second Life spam last night advertising the chance to meet some bored housewives for virtual rumpy-pumpy in a virtual manshon. The advertisement featured photographs of real-life women and a real-life block of flats, which seemed rather much like it was designed to entice you into the real world via the virtual.

Q1: Do you know of “Second Life”? (Sample size=1,073)

Used it (to SQ1)	1.1%
Heard about it, but not used it (to SQ1)	18.5%
Never heard of it	80.3%

Of the 12 who had experienced Second Life, not one of them could recall having seen commercial advertisments or promotions, etc within the game.

Q1SQ1: Do you have the impression that “Second Life” is in vogue these days? (Sample size=211)

Quite a bit	4.3%
A little	28.9%
Not really	47.9%
Not at all	19.0%

Of the 199 who had heard of it but not used it, when asked why the top reason was that they didn’t feel there was anything particularly attractive about it, with 106 people, or 53.3%, stating this. Next was 85 people, or 42.7%, saying they didn’t have the time; 52 people or 26.1% said there was only an English version; then 25 people or 12.6% said their PC didn’t meet the requirements to play.

Q2: The release of a Japanese version of “Second Life” is due very soon. Would you like to use it in the future? (Sample size=1,073)

Want to try it	48.3%
Don’t want to try it	51.7%