世論 What Japan Thinks

With the recet spate of natural disasters in Burma, China and now Japan itself, this may be a good time to look at a recent survey published on japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into internet donations.

Demographics

On the 5th of June 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor pool employed in private industry completed a members-only internet-based questionnaire. 77.0% of the sample were male, 9.4% in their twenties, 33.0% in their thirties, 40.6% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 1.2% in their sixties.

It’s a pretty low number of donaters and sum they are donating, and it sounds mostly like people getting rid of saved-up points that they have no intention of ever cashing in.

Research results

From the original sample, 87.3% had at some point in the past made a donation to charity by one means or another. 59.7% of the sample knew about making donations online, and of that group, 50.3%, or 99 people, had actually donated online, making it 30.0% of the total sample who had made an online donation. They were asked the following questions.

Q1: How have you made donations online? (Sample size=99, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Points, miles exchange donation	48	48.5%
One-click donation	45	45.5%
Chose sum to donate myself	21	21.2%
Donated multiples of a fixed sum	8	8.1%
Affiliate profit donation	7	7.1%
Made donation in exchange for goods, services	3	3.0%
Charity auction	3	3.0%
Made donation by writing message on bulletin board, etc	1	1.0%
Other	2	2.0%

Q2: To which organisations have you made donations online? (Sample size=99, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Unicef	18	18.2%
Yahoo! Volunteer	11	11.1%
Unesco	8	8.1%
E-bank	8	8.1%
dff.jp	6	6.1%
World Food Program	5	5.1%
Yahoo! Public Funds	2	2.0%
Association for Aid and Relief, Japan	2	2.0%
e-kokoro!	2	2.0%
JOICFP, who don’t seem to want to be linked to	0	0.0%
Second Life Donation (not the 3D game, retired folk)	0	0.0%
Don’t know, don’t remember	49	49.5%
Other	19

Q3: How did you pay your donations? (Sample size=99, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Paid with saved-up points, miles	58	58.6%
Paid by credit card online	14	14.1%
Paid by transfer from online bank	8	8.1%
Applied online, paid at convenience store, bank, etc	2	2.0%
Paid by prepaid online card	0	0.0%
Don’t know, don’t remember	23	23.2%
Other	9	9.1%

When asked how much was the most they donated, 47.5% said between 1 and 99 yen, 19.2% between 100 and 499 yen, and 12.1% between 500 and 999 yen, leaving 21.2% split between either 1,000 yen or more and those who cannot remember.

Finally, everyone was asked if in the future they would donate via the internet; 62.1% said they would if they had the opportunity and 3.0% said they definitely would.