世論 What Japan Thinks

I’ve never taken part in online auctions myself, although I’ve got a bit of rubbish high quality pre-owned goods that I could always get rid of to bring in a few extra pennies. However, it seems that a large minority of Japanese are busy buying and selling, if this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc on auctions is to be believed.

Demographics

On the 6th of March 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor pool successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample was female, 17.0% in their twenties, 42.1% in their thirties, 23.3% in their forties, 9.1% in their fifties, and 8.5% in their sixties.

In a survey last week I commented on how a surprisingly high percentage of Japanese spend most online time on Yahoo! but this suggests many of them are busy with auctions!

If you want to take part in Japanese auctions, but you live overseas or cannot read Japanese too well, I usually recommend Rinkya as somewhere that provides a bidding and forwarding service for these sorts of buyers. I’ve not personally used their services, and I’ve indeed not even seen any reviews of their service, and they are not cheap, but if you need items from Japan they seem a good place to check out.

Research results

Q1: Have you used an auction site from either your computer or mobile phone? (Sample size=330)

Yes, currently do so (to SQs)	45.5%
Used to, but now don’t	16.1%
No, never	36.7%
Don’t know what it is	1.8%

Q1SQ1: Which auction sites have you used? (Sample size=150, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Yahoo! Auction	141	94.0%
Rakuten Fleamarket, Super Auction, Auction, etc)	45	30.0%
Bidders	13	8.7%
eBay	2	1.3%
Other	3	2.0%

Q1SQ2: How have you used auction sites? (Sample size=150)

Only sold stuff	2.7%
Only bought stuff	44.7%
Both bought and sold	52.7%