Japanese awareness of podcasting low
Here’s a topic I haven’t seen a survey on for a while - perhaps it is no longer the next big thing? To find out if that is the case or not, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc on the topic of podcasting.
Demographics
On the 31st of August 2007 330 members of JR Tokai Express Research’s online monitor pool employed in either public service or private enterprises completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.3% of the group was male, 15.5% in their twenties, 37.3% in their thirties, 35.8% in their forties, 9.7% in their fifties, and 1.8% in their sixties.
The best thing about these podcast surveys is that it gives me an excuse to plug my favourite podcast, indeed the only podcast I listen to, Transpacific Radio, for the most detailed English news you can get on the Japanese worlds of politics, business, and occasionally even Duran Duran.
As I just listen to the one podcast, I don’t use any aggregator, I just directly download from TPR’s RSS feed for playback in Windows Media Player - I dislike using iPods.
Research results
Q1: Do you know about “Podcasting”? (Sample size=330)
Don’t know anything about it 53.0% Just heard the term 20.3% Know what it is, but not used it 14.2% Using Podcasts (to SQs) 7.6% Have used Podcasts before (to SQs) 4.8% The number not having even heard the term is five percentage points less that when a similar survey was conducted last year. However, those who had just heard the term increased 4.5 percentage points, perhaps suggesting that few hearing of it in the last year had any urge to investigate further.
Q1SQ1: What sorts of material do you (or did you) listen to? (Sample size=41, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage News 24 58.5% Language-related materials 18 43.9% Music 17 41.5% Movies 8 19.5% Other 6 14.6% Q1SQ2: Which of the following Podcast aggregators do you (or did you) have installed on your own computer? (Sample size=41, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage iTunes 36 87.8% WinAmp 6 14.6% Pod Yaro 5 12.2% Juice 1 2.4% Alligator 1 2.4% Ziepod 1 2.4% Podcast Tuner 1 2.4% Podfeeder 1 2.4% Cast Life 0 0.0% Don’t know, can’t remember 1 2.4% Other 0 0.0% Not installed any podcast aggregator software 3 7.3%
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Garrett said,
September 12, 2007 @ 02:01
Ken, you’re a champ. Thanks for the plug. In our defense, I will say that Debito insisted on talking about Duran Duran.
One of my students once told me why he thought podcasting wouldn’t catch on in Japan. His reason was essentially that radio in Japan was absolutely not worth listening to - that there was no equivalent of NPR or BBC Radio - that radio was rather completely killed by TV in Japan, and that, other than music, pure audio was just not something the Japanese were into. (I can believe this - things like audiobooks seem to be unpopular in Japan, despite the fact that Japan publishes the most books per capita of any nation. Even my own wife doesn’t listen to TPR.)
I’d like to say I had a more reasoned analysis of the issue, but it seems to me he’s right. It’s rare, at least here in Tokyo, to hear the radio playing in a shop - there’s always either a TV on or CDs playing - and there are shockingly few radio stations in Tokyo. Almost all of them do nothing but play pop hits.
He also said that blogging a la Mixi was popular because it granted a certain degree of anonymity, whereas having your voice go out over the Internet was pretty much the oposite. To that end, we at TPR use ghost writers and voice doubles, primarily to be sure that we are not injured during recording sessions.
Ken said,
September 12, 2007 @ 02:31
To that end, we at TPR use ghost writers and voice doubles, primarily to be sure that we are not injured during recording sessions.
You’re scared of me, or vice-versa?
Podcast? What’s That? said,
September 12, 2007 @ 10:27
[…] In August, 330 members of JR Tokai Express Research’s online monitor pool employed in either public service or private enterprises completed a questionnaire on podcasting. The results were reported on japan.internet.com and summarized by What Japan Thinks. […]