世論 What Japan Thinks

I couldn’t do this web site without Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC close at hand to help me out whenever I get stuck. I can’t remember the last time I actually picked up a paper dictionary, although my Canon Wordtank portable electronic dictionary also sees a lot of action. I’ve got a translation tool at the office, but it’s so hefty it’s impractical to use for single word look up. To find out what the average Japanese person does, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into portable electronic dictionaries.

Demographics

On the 14th of November 2007 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor pool employed in either public or private enterprises successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 82.7% of the sample was male, 8.2% in their twenties, 38.8% in their thirties, 39.1% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

Talking of dictionaries, perhaps one of the best Japanese-English ones (especially if you already have a DS) is the Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten DS pictured above, as you get full pen input for a start, a feature found in none bar the most expensive specialised portable electronic dictionaries.

Research results

Q1: What kinds of dictionaries do you use? (Sample size=330, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Paper dictionary	196	59.4%
Online dictionary site	187	56.7%
Portable electronic dictionary (to SQs)	100	30.3%
Mobile phone dictionary feature	81	24.5%
Dictionary software	69	20.9%
PDA	11	3.3%
Other	2	0.6%
Don’t use a dictionary	18	5.5%

I wonder what category the DS would fall under, assuming anyone in the sample had one.

Q1SQ1: Who are the makers of the portable electronic dictionaries that you use? (Sample size=100, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Casio	56	56.0%
Sharp	34	34.0%
Seiko	19	19.0%
Sony	13	13.0%
Canon	8	8.0%
Other	0	0.0%

Q1SQ2: What type of dictionary lookups do you often perform on your portable elctronic dictionary? (Sample size=100, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
English to Japanese	87	87.0%
Japanese to English	61	61.0%
Japanese	56	56.0%
Kanji	18	18.0%
Other foreign language	13	13.0%
Other	10	10.0%