世論 What Japan Thinks

Not too surprisingly, Yahoo! comes out on top as the most frequently used news site in Japan, but there are still many interesting results in this survey from MyVoice into news sites.

Demographics

Over the first four days of April 2008 14,913 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 1% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

I am glad to see that the top complaint is the lack of information in articles; most Japanese articles are just two or three paragraphs long and as a user of Google News one finds very similar reports in different papers. Google News also reveals another problem, namely that articles often expire really quickly; even after only a few hours a lot of the links on Google News lead to error pages.

For English news on Japan, I recommend the appropriately-named News on Japan as a useful aggregator of news, although in a few months there may very well be a new challenger in this market…

Research results

Q1: Usually, about how often do you view news sites on the internet? (Sample size=14,913)

Twice a day or more	36.0%
Once a day	30.7%
Four or five times a week	6.4%
Two or three times a week	7.3%
Once a week	5.2%
Less than that	7.2%
Don’t read news online (to end of survey)	7.2%

Q2: Which do you use more for viewing internet news, computer or mobile phone? (Sample size=internet news readers)

Mostly use computer	84.1%
Use computer a bit more	6.7%
Use computer and mobile phone about equally	3.7%
Use mobile phone a bit more	2.4%
Mostly use mobile phone	1.6%
Don’t use either	1.0%
No answer	0.5%

Q3: At what times do you often read internet news? (Sample size=internet news readers, multiple answer)

4 to 5 am	0.9%
5 to 6 am	2.1%
6 to 7 am	5.9%
7 to 8 am	9.8%
8 to 9 am	14.0%
9 to 10 am	15.9%
10 to 11 am	14.0%
11 to 12 noon	8.1%
12 noon to 1 pm	21.9%
1 to 2 pm	9.4%
2 to 3 pm	7.7%
3 to 4 pm	9.6%
4 to 5 pm	8.4%
5 to 6 pm	12.0%
6 to 7 pm	13.5%
7 to 8 pm	14.3%
8 to 9 pm	21.3%
9 to 10 pm	26.9%
10 to 11 pm	29.4%
11 pm to 12 midnight	23.7%
12 midnight to 1 am	11.6%
1 to 2 am	4.7%
2 to 3 am	1.7%
3 to 4 am	0.7%
No answer	1.0%

Q4: What genres of internet news do you mainly read? (Sample size=internet news readers, up to three answers)

Society	78.6%
Sports	45.2%
Financial	44.9%
Culture, arts	44.2%
Politics	31.7%
International	27.4%
Local news	17.5%
Science, technical	11.6%
Other	4.8%
No answer	1.3%

Q5: What internet news site do your use the most? (Sample size=internet news readers)

Yahoo! News	62.4%
Infoseek News	5.9%
Asahi.com	5.2%
Nikkei Net	4.3%
MSN Sankei News	4.1%
Google News	3.6%
goo News	2.1%
Yomiuri Online	1.8%
Nikkei BP Net	0.9%
Nikkan Sports.com	0.7%
Excite News	0.6%
Mainichi.jp	0.5%
SANSPO.com	0.4%
Sponichi Annex	0.3%
ZAKZAK	0.3%
Jiji.com	0.3%
Allatanys	0.2%
CNN.co.jp	0.2%
47 News	0.2%
gendai.net	0.2%
Fuji Sankei Business i	0.1%
Weekly POST.com	0.0%
Other	4.6%
No answer	1.1%

Q6: What do you feel is unsatisfactory about the internet news sites you normally view? (Sample size=internet news readers, multiple answer)

Amount of information per article is low	19.7%
Difficult to find what I want to read	12.7%
Advertisements are annoying	9.6%
Few articles	8.6%
Article update is slow	7.7%
Can’t view old articles	7.6%
There is information that cannot be viewed for free	4.2%
Article credibility is low	3.8%
Site has no originality	2.9%
Page loading time is slow	2.5%
Page design, layout is difficult to read	2.3%
Too many articles	2.2%
Few functions to take advantage of being net-based	2.2%
Insufficient stuff outside of articles	1.0%
Other	1.9%
Nothing in particular	49.9%
No answer	1.2%