世論 What Japan Thinks

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%