世論 What Japan Thinks

I’ve read a grand total of exactly one book on a PDA, and zero on mobile phones. I just found it too tiring squinting at a small screen, and as I’m not on an unlimited plan, downloading material to my mobile phone is prohibitively expensive. To find out what Japan thinks, let’s look at a survey reported by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research on the topic of electronic books.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 20th of September 2007 1,088 members of goo Research’s online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.0% of the sample was male, 17.3% in their teens, 19.9% in their twenties, 18.0% in their thirties, 17.2% in their forties, 16.6% in their fifties, and 11.0% aged sixty or older.

Note that DoCoMo and SoftBank (and most likely au too) have free manga libraries for their customers, if you have an unlimited contract and looking for something to download and practice your Japanese on.

Research results

Q1: Do you know about electronic books? (Sample size=1,088)

Yes	57.9%
Just heard of them	36.2%
No	15.9%

Q2: Do you know about electronic books that you can read on portable devices? (Sample size=1,088)

Yes	54.4%
Just heard of them	30.9%
No	14.7%

Q3: Have you ever read an electronic book? (Sample size=1,088)

Yes	46.3%
No	53.7%

Q3: Have you ever read an electronic book on a mobile phone? (Sample size=1,088)

Yes (to SQ)	16.2%
No	83.8%

Q3SQ: What genres of contents have you read on a mobile phone? (Sample size=176, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Manga	130	73.9%
Novel	85	48.3%
Business books	6	3.4%
Game-related	6	3.4%
Travel	6	3.4%
Gourmet, food	5	2.8%
Photograph collections	4	2.3%
Other	3	1.7%

Q4: Have you ever read an electronic book on a PDA? (Sample size=1,088)

Yes (to SQ)	16.2%
No	83.8%

Q4SQ: What genres of contents have you read on a PDA? (Sample size=21, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Novel	17	81.0%
Business books	8	38.1%
Manga	3	14.3%
Photograph collections	2	9.5%
Game-related	2	9.5%
Gourmet, food	2	9.5%
Travel	1	4.8%
Other	2	9.5%