世論 What Japan Thinks

With keyboarding skills becoming a more and more important ability to have in the modern world, although some might argue that in Japan it is mobile phone thumbing speed that is the key, japan.internet.com recently reported on a rather interesting survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into touch-typing abilities.

Demographics

Over the 23th and 24th of May 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing Inc’s online monitor panel completed a private internet-based survey. The sample was split exactly 50:50 male and female, 20.0% of the respondents were in their teens, 20.0% were in their twenties, 20.0% were in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

I can touch-type to a certain extent, although I’m sure I’d not win many prizes for my accuracy. One result I’d have like to have seen is what keyboard layout people used; not QWERTY versus Dvorak, but for Japanese entry Romaji versus Kana input, which is basically either spelling things using the latin alphabet or spelling using the native Japanese kana alphabet.

Research results

Q1: Can you touch-type? (Sample size=300)

Perfectly (to SQ)	5.7%
Mostly (to SQ)	36.7%
Sometimes	37.0%
Not at all	20.7%

Q1SQ: How did you learn to touch-type? (Sample size=127, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Naturally got the hang of it	61	48.0%
Taught myself	60	47.2%
Used touch-typing training software	32	25.2%
Went to PC school or other lessons	12	9.4%
Found out from the internet	9	7.1%
Other	8	6.3%
Don’t know, can’t remember	1	0.8%

Q2: Which fingers do you usually use when typing? (Sample size=300)

All fingers	55.0%
All bar pinkies	7.7%
Thumb, index finger and middle finger	21.0%
Thumb, index finger and pinkie	2.3%
Thumb and index finger	3.7%
Index finger	4.7%
Other	5.7%