世論 What Japan Thinks

I remember last time I was looking for an electronic book survey two came along at once, and this time too I have seen a couple in quick succession, so I’ll again double them up. Both surveys were reported on by japan.internet.com, and the first was on electronic books and conducted by iBridge Research Plus, and the second on book purchasing online and conducted by Marsh Inc.

Demographics

For the iBridge survey, between the 30th of October and the 1st of November 2008 300 members of the iBridge monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.3% of the sample were female, 16.0% in their twenties, 39.7% in their thirties, 27.3% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 5.7% aged sixty or older. For the Marsh survey, between the 31st of October and the 4th of November 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were male, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

In Q2 from iBridge, 青空文庫, Aozora Bunko, Blue Sky Library, is a great place to find stuff to read, although the formatting could do with some work to be more friendly to modern browsers that can display readings of kanji over the characters rather than inline after them. However, this is a list of viewers for Aozora Bunko. The last book I read from there was Kenji Miyazawa’s Night on the Galactic Railroad, which is a nice short story for intermediate-level students. I also don’t understand why they restricted the question to PC users, since as can be seen from the viewer page, there are suitable readers for almost everything including an iPhone. Do any of my iPhone using readers want to do a road test of these packages?

Research results

For the survey from iBridge on electronic books, the following questions were asked.

Q1: Do you know about electronic books? (Sample size=300)

Know a lot about it (to SQ1)	23.0%
Know something about it (to SQ1)	53.0%
Just heard about it	18.7%
Don’t know about it	5.3%

Q1SQ1: Have you read any electronic books? (Sample size=228)

Yes	33.8%
No	66.2%

Of the 33.8% here, or 77 people, 55 people had read electronic books on a PC, although what other devices other people used was not reported. These 55 users were asked this final reported question of the iBridge survey.

Q2: Do you know about Aozora Bunko (Blue Sky Library), where you can read books for free on your PC? (Sample size=55)

Yes, and read a book from it	18.2%
Yes, heard the name	36.4%
No	45.5%

For the survey from Marsh on purchasing books electronically, the following questions were asked.

Q3: Have you ever purchased books online? (Sample size=300)

Yes (to SQs)	67.0%
No	33.0%

Q3SQ1: From where do/did you purchase books online? (Sample size=201, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Amazon	156	77.6%
Rakuten Books	112	55.7%
TSUTAYA Online	24	11.9%
Kinokuniya	14	7.0%
livedoor Books	7	3.5%
Junkudo	7	3.5%
JBOOK	4	2.0%
Honya Town	4	2.0%
Shogakukan	3	1.5%
Iwanami Books	3	1.5%
Kodansha	2	1.0%
Shueisha	2	1.0%
Bunkeishunshu	2	1.0%
Heibonsha	1	0.5%
Other distributor’s site	14	7.0%
Other publisher’s site	4	2.0%
Other	13	6.5%

Q3SQ2: Which do you use more, online or bricks and mortar stores? (Sample size=201)

Use online more	40.3%
Use bricks and mortar store more	59.7%

Q3SQ3: Which is easier to purchase from, online or bricks and mortar stores? (Sample size=201)

Easier to buy online	25.9%
Slightly easier to buy online	16.9%
Don’t feel either in particular	25.9%
Slightly easier to buy offline	18.9%
Easier to buy offline	12.4%