世論 What Japan Thinks

With one of the favourite ways to pass the time in trains being fiddling with one’s mobile phone, this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into mobile phone email lets us look at what people are doing with them on the train.

Demographics

On the 10th of May 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in the private sector completed a closed online questionnaire. 75.5% of the sample was male, 11.5% in their twenties, 35.2% in their thirties, 38.8% in their forties, 11.5% in their fifties, and 2.4% in their sixties. Note that as JR Tokai Express draws some of its monitor base from promotion through JR Tokai Express trains, there may very well be a bias towards people who frequently use the bullet train, where it is acceptable to talk on one’s mobile in between the carriages.

As noted above, as there are probably a lot of business travelers, the 11% who talk on trains might include a certain percentage who only do it on the shinkansen or other long-distance trains where such behaviour is acceptable.

Also in Q2, One Seg television at 12% just beats music playing, but many more people use iPods instead for their in-train audio entertainment.

The extra information from Q2 saying that three in four were checking route information strengthens my assumption that there were a lot of business travelers in the survey.

Research results

First of all, 12 people from the sample did not have a mobile phone, so they were excluded from the following questions.

Q1: Do you have your mobile phone on manner mode (silent mode) on the train? (Sample size=318)

Yes	87.0%
No	13.0%

Q2: What sorts of functions do you use in trains? (Sample size=318, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Email	301	94.7%
Internet	189	59.4%
Games, applications	73	23.0%
Memo, schedule	59	18.6%
One Seg television	38	11.9%
Audio player	37	11.6%
Talk	35	11.0%
Other	5	1.6%

For the One Seg terrestrial digital television watchers, just over three-quarters watched news programs, 42% watched variety shows, 40% sports, and 34% dramas.

For the internet users, just under three-quarters were checking route information, just over two-thirds were reading the news, 47% checking the weather, around one in five pursuing hobbies like music, sports, games, and about one in ten on blogs or SNS.

Q3: Have you ever looked at someone else’s mobile phone display in a train? (Sample size=318)

Yes	62.8%
No	37.2%

Q4: Do you feel other people’s in-train use of mobiles to be a problem to you? (Sample size=318)

Often feel so	20.0%
Sometimes feel so	37.9%
Rarely feel so	36.7%
Don’t feel so at all	5.5%

The most frequent reason why people feel uncomfortable was due to others talking in loud voices.