世論 What Japan Thinks

Japan does have the image of being a very law-abiding country, and this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into portable audio players does reinforce that stereotype.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 20th of April 2009 1,056 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.8% in their twenties, 20.9% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties,15.6% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

First of all, let me say that I am not clear on the finer details of Japanese copyright law, but in Q1SQ2 one might claim that copying from CD may be illegal, but assuming given the number of music rental shops that people copy from rented CDs, I believe the law does allow one to make copies, although I did read that it is supposed to be a degraded copy, so ripping to MP3 might be OK. Second of all, downloading other people’s illegally uploaded music is not illegal; it is only the uploading that falls foul of the law, although than might or might not change soon.
Read the rest of this entry »

A new-to-me blog for the NPO Japan for Sustainability recently published the results of a survey into awareness of Fairtrade that showed a quite surprising to me 17.6% who both knew the term, and knew it was concerned with poverty and the environment. In Japanese it is merely a transliteration of the English word, not a translation, and I have never seen the Fairtrade mark appearing on Japanese products, so I must say I am a bit skeptical of these numbers, even though the survey was conducted by the reputable firm Macromill Inc.

As a contrast, in the UK last year 70% could recognise the logo that appears on Fairtrade products, and this year it’s up to 82%!

Since Japan is entering holiday mode for the next week, I’ll be decreasing my posting frequency to perhaps once every two days until next Friday. To get you into the holiday mood, today goo Ranking posted up an appropriate survey looking at what makes you feel all lonely after spending all of a holiday day doing.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of March 2009 1,043 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 7.8% in their teens, 17.1% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 24.8% in their forties, 11.4% in their fifties, and 10.7% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Mine might be a variation of 17, spending all day trying to tweak my PC or troubleshooting – I should run full virus scans and spyware checks, as my wife’s suffering from a dead slow Internet Explorer which also occasionally just folds up completely. I should try her on Opera and tell her it’s just a new IE version. Since a bunch of patches were downloaded two weeks ago the performance has got even worse, but I think I’ll use it as an excuse to upgrade to two gigabytes of RAM.

Photo of Calvin the cat vegging out on the sofa with the remote by dolescum on flickr.
Read the rest of this entry »

One of the Japanese government’s economic stimulus plans is to decrease the tolls on all roads to just 1,000 yen maximum per day on weekends and public holidays starting on the 28th or March, and from the 12th March 2009 they also introduced a subsidy of 5,250 yen for cars and 15,750 yen for motorcyclists who fitted ETC devices, Electronic Toll Collection devices, as the system only applies to ETC card holders. To see what people thought of this, DIMSDRIVE Research loooked at ETC purchase support system and toll road usage discounts.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 16th of April 2009 5,547 driving license-holding, and with a family car, members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 0.2% aged 18 or 19, 11.8% in their twenties, 36.9% in their thirties, 29.9% in their forties, 14.9% in their fifties, and 6.3% aged sixty or older. 69.2% were the main users of a car, and the other 30.8% had access to the family vehicle.

Note that even without the discount system or for weekday usage, fitting an ETC makes sense as fees are slightly lower as you get charged for the exact distance you travel, not a rounded-up fee; on the Osaka to Kobe expressway, for instance, it is normally a flat fare of 700 yen, but with ETC if you only travel part-way you get a refund as you exit.

In Q9, it seems odd that even those without ETC will increase their usage.

One issue that gets swept under the carpet is the increase in CO2 and other pollutants caused by heavier vehicle usage, and also there may be heavier traffic, causing jams and higher fuel consumption from idling. Here’s an interesting set of figures found on Google about how small towns create disproportionate amounts of CO2.
Read the rest of this entry »

Oh no, it’s another post with a wonky title courtesy of Evoticon.net, on what makes you spontaneously scream inwardly a survey that could only be from goo Ranking, of course.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of March 2009 1,043 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 7.8% in their teens, 17.1% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 24.8% in their forties, 11.4% in their fifties, and 10.7% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think I would vocalise my screams in just about every incident below. The one that happens most often to me is number seven, the train doors shutting on me, and I certainly do let out an audible curse at that point!
Read the rest of this entry »

A great pair of surveys this Sunday from goo Ranking, the first is what things your partner does for you on a date that makes you happy, for both Japanese women pleasing men and Japanese men pleasing women; and second is what secrets that you and your partner have that you don’t want your friends to know, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of March 2009 1,043 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 7.8% in their teens, 17.1% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 24.8% in their forties, 11.4% in their fifties, and 10.7% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

In the first question, it’s interesting to note that for men, I count seven answers directly related to expressions of love, and in the top ten another three answers are my biggest frustrations when they don’t happen, women actually giving us a hint as to what they are wanting. For women, expressions of chivalry seem to be the main desire; the lack of being happy about men making a move is perhaps more down to the expectation that their date will be all over them with little or no prompting.

For the second question, I think it is the Japanese way to keep things close to one’s chest at work regarding the opposite sex. How we met is one especially that my wife never tells anyone, although it’s not really that interesting or weird a story! I suspect that cos-play dates refers to dressing up in the bedroom…

Photo found on flickr and taken by sprookjeshuwelijk.
Read the rest of this entry »

PLC, or Power Line Communication, is basically a home networking scheme that allows one to use the standard mains cabling for networking computers. One needs a separate link to the outside world, of course, via ASDL or whatever, but otherwise just a pair of compact plug adapters will get you networked. PLC was the highlighted topic for this story on japan.internet.com based on a survey from goo Research into computers.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 12th of April 2009 1,089 members of the goo Research monitor team completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.0% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

If I had a home without built-in ethernet, I’d probably choose PLC over wireless, as there are no worries about freeloaders or other security issues associated with WiFi and the speed is in theory higher, although on the other hand I’ve heard that the main problem with PLC is power spikes inferfering with connections whenever household electrical items turn on and off, and of course if you have an old building with dodgy wiring there’s going to be problems.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here is this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri, with a bumper haul of sixteen entries, including a few new-to-me blogs, so I hope you all can find something new too.

First out of the trap is a fellow Kansai blogger, sleepytako, a name that already suggests slow times! His relaxation is getting gently boiled in various hot springs around the Kansai area, and the story also serves as a pointer to his rather useful Kansai Onsen Guide.

Next up is another Kansai resident, Harvey, who submitted an older post, but it’s about a walk I’ve always wanted to do myself, as I find disused railway lines fascinating. He walked a portion of the old Takarazuka to Sanda JR line.

Jamie at Frugalista Japan posted on not really a slow time, more a downright boring year in Yokkaichi, which I suspect might be near Tokyo, but it sounds far too dull to even bother looking up!

Read the rest of this entry »

With stories almost every week about a new bot network or browser exploit threatening Western civilisation, the need for not just straightforward virus-checking, but regular spyware and malware scanning, is as great as ever. This recent survey from MyVoice was their second look (I missed the first!) at computer security.

Demographics

Over the first five days of April 2009 15,682 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

In the English-speaking world I could see a product named “Internet Security Zero” selling absolutely zero copies, but it’s not the first and won’t be the last product to misappropriate some English, with beer manufacturers being the worst with “Off”, “Style Free”, and “Lets Beer Nothing”, although I may have invented that last brand.

As I mention every survey, a combination of Avast anti-virus and Spybot Search and Destroy will keep your PC clean for free, and are a lot less obtrusive and memory-hogging than the commercial offerings. MalwareBytes is another program I’ve heard good things about for detecting nasties, but I’ve used it just once or twice.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s perhaps a rather ordinary survey on terrestrial digital broadcasting from goo Research, their seventh time of conducting this monthly survey, as reported by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 9th of April 2009 1,087 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.6% were in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

In order to try to spice up this survey just today there was a very interesting development regarding the government’s “image character”, Mr Tsuyoshi Kusunagi of the popular beat combo The Smaps, who appears on their advertising promoting, to use the common Japanese abbreviation for terrestrial digital, “chi-deji”. He was arrested in the early hours of the morning chin-deta – a corny pun that I will make no effort to explain – looking for digital adjustments to his antenna, if the rumours about him and the park are to be believed. The government, and just about every other organisation that he advertises for are now busy ripping up their contracts with him, although permit me to offer the above police mugshot as an alternative. (Yes, I know I suck at Photoshop!)

Leaving the gossip behind, let’s get back to the business on hand, the survey.
Read the rest of this entry »