世論 What Japan Thinks

Two for the price of one tonight, with goo Ranking looking this time at what tips you off to someone being a railway fan.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of July 2009 1,026 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 48.2% of the sample were male, 8.0% in their teens, 14.6% in their twenties, 28.8% in their thirties, 26.0% in their forties, 12.5% in their fifties, and 10.1% 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. Note that today’s question is for the men only.

As it’s a while since I’ve tried to sell you mobile phone straps please allow me this indulgence of a high-tech demo of a train leaving Tokyo station:

This strap, and a million and one other ones, may be purchased from Strapya.

Ranking results

Q: What moment makes you think someone might be a train fanatic? (Sample size=1,026)

Rank		Score
1	They know all about train carriages	100
2	They can tell you the station by just hearing the train arrival melody	89.4
3	Thd>They have all the changing train information committed to memory	88.8
4	They have a model train set at home	80.0
5	They have a train timetable in their bag	79.1
6	Their holiday objectives are to ride trains	75.1
7	They’ve sat the Timetable Searching Profiency Exam	74.8
8	They collect tickets, station stamps	73.7
9	They have a vast storehouse of knowledge regarding station names	73.3
10	They can repeat platform annoucements, in-train announcements	65.8
11	They’ve been to a train museum many times	65.4
12	Their mobile phone ring tone is a train departure tune	55.7
13	They have a CD of train departure tunes	54.8
14	They know all about station lunch boxes from all over the country	52.4
15	Their mobile phone wallpaper is a photo of a train	48.1
16	They know all about sleeper trains	47.2
17	Their hobby is visiting disused railway lines	42.9
18	They ride in the front carriage and watch the driver	42.5
19	For domestic holidays they use trains rather than aeroplanes	36.4
20	Their mobile phone strap is a station nameplate or a train head mark	34.8