世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s an interesting survey from iShare that answers the questions that many westerners ask when they see the average Japanese mobile phone email littered with kaomoji smilies and decomail animations, simply “Why?”

Demographics

Over the 28th and 29th of January 2009 668 users of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.1% of the sample were male, 12.6% in their twenties, 46.1% in their thirties, 33.4% in their forties, 6.7% in their fifties, and 1.2% in their teens or sixty or older.

Just in case you missed last night’s post, you can find about 8,000 (and growing) kaomoji facemarks at evoticon. Other technical terms included in this post are emoji, simple icons, and decomail, HTML templated mail, including DIY text animation.

Research results

Q1: Do you use emoji, decomail, etc in mobile phone email? (Sample size=668)

	All	Male N=368	Female N=300
Always (to SQs)	16.9%	10.6%	24.7%
Sometimes (to SQs)	48.2%	48.4%	48.0%
Never	28.3%	33.7%	21.7%
Don’t use mobile phone email	6.6%	7.3%	5.7%

Q1SQ1: Why do you use emoji, decomail, etc in mobile phone email? (Sample size=435, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=217	Female N=218
Because I can effectively convey my feelings	57.9%	56.7%	59.2%
Because it softens expressions	56.6%	56.7%	56.4%
Because I can express nuances that are difficult to put into words	49.2%	43.8%	54.6%
Because it looks cute	35.4%	25.3%	45.4%
Because I want to make the receiver happy	22.3%	24.4%	20.2%
Because I enjoy it	19.1%	18.4%	19.7%
Because everyone uses them	5.3%	6.5%	4.1%
Because I want people to think I have good sense	4.1%	5.1%	3.2%
Because I’m not good with words	3.2%	4.6%	1.8%
Other	2.3%	2.3%	2.3%

Q1SQ2: Which of the following types of decoration do you often use? (Sample size=435, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=217	Female N=218
Emoji (icons)	81.6%	78.3%	84.9%
Kaomoji (smilies)	76.3%	77.4%	75.2%
Photo attachments	14.0%	8.3%	19.7%
Decomail with illustrations, templates, etc	13.1%	9.2%	17.0%
Handwriting-style font	0.9%	0.5%	1.4%
Galmoji	0.2%	0.5%	0.0%
Other	0.9%	1.4%	0.5%

Q1SQ3: Which of the following types of decoration are you most happy to receive? (Sample size=435)

	All	Male N=217	Female N=218
Emoji (icons)	43.9%	44.2%	43.6%
Kaomoji (smilies)	19.5%	22.6%	16.5%
Photo attachments	16.6%	16.1%	17.0%
Decomail with illustrations, templates, etc	12.6%	9.7%	15.6%
Picture the sender has drawn him/herself	3.0%	2.3%	3.7%
Handwritten letter	2.5%	3,2%	1.8%
Handwriting-style font	1.6%	1.4%	1.8%
Galmoji	0.2%	0.5%	0.0%

I’m not sure what a handwritten letter is doing in this list as it is talking about email specifically. Perhaps they mean a photograph of a message?

Q1SQ4: Which of the following types of decoration mail services would you like to try out? (Sample size=435, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=217	Female N=218
Decomail resources download service	31.7%	26.3%	37.2%
Original emoji creation service	29.0%	23.5%	34.4%
Handwritten letter exchange service	19.8%	18.4%	21.1%
Conversion to handwriting-style font service	19.3%	17.1%	21.6%
Add text or illustrations to mobile phone photographs service	17.0%	16.1%	17.9%
Purikura photobooth mobile phone forwarding service	9.2%	8.8%	9.6%
Real-time handwritten chat service	7.6%	7.4%	7.8%
Other	13.1%	14.3%	11.9%

Note that some of the services mentioned in the above question do exist for one or more provider.