世論 What Japan Thinks

A new-to-me research company called realworld realresearch, which from a quick look at their site seems to be more in the business of being a shopping and stuff portal than a research agency, recently performed a survey into local authorities and IT, as reported by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 13th of October 2008 1,199 people selected by some undescribed means completed a presumably online questionnaire. 52.0% of the sample were female, 15.0% were in their twenties, 16.0% in their thirties, 18.0% in their forties, 21.0% in their fifties, and 30.0% in their sixties. Given the round percentages, don’t ask why they couldn’t find one more person to round the sample up to 1,200! It’s also a curiously top-heavy sample, with the majority of the sample being over fifty.

I’m surprised that (as far as I know) no local authority has tried moving more services online, as one still needs to get a paper print-out of one’s residency certificate for such things as mortgages and other large loans, or at least why there cannot be vending machines that will spew out the documents 24-7 instead of requiring people to attend during working hours.

Here’s my town’s application form download service.

Research results

Q1: Does the local authority that you reside in have a web site? (Sample size=1,199)

Yes (to SQ1)	81.8%
No	1.8%
Don’t know	16.4%

Q1SQ1: Have you visited this web site? (Sample size=981)

Yes (to SQ2)	86.1%
No	13.9%

Putting the two together we get the following data.

Q1+Q1SQ1: Have you visited the web site for the local authority that you reside in? (Sample size=1,199)

Yes	70.5%
No	11.3%
Doesn’t have a web site	1.8%
Don’t know if it has a web site	16.4%

Q1SQ2: Have you ever used the following services on this web site? (Sample size=845, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Getting application forms for residency certificate copies	313	37.0%
Getting application forms for residency certificate changes	286	33.8%
Getting application forms for family register copies, changes	269	31.8%
Getting application forms for national health insurance-related matters	160	18.9%
Getting application forms for care-related matters	147	17.4%
Other	217	25.7%
Not got any application forms	269	31.8%