世論 What Japan Thinks

Recently DIMSDRIVE Research took a look at shredders and personal information.

Demographics

Between the 22nd of July and the 6th of August 2009 9,590 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 1.1% in their teens, 11.9% in their twenties, 32.2% in their thirties, 31.5% in their forties, 16.5% in their fifties, and 6.8% aged sixty or older.

In Q1, just in case you are wondering what a personal information-hiding stamp is, well, I can sell you one of these. It’s a stamp that overprints data with a tight pattern in order to obscure the original text which I thought was just a novelty, but 6.4% of the sample use one.

I myself have an electric shredder that we bought mail-order for about 10,000 yen a few years ago. It’s a quite large home office size, but it works well, although it does clog up if you put plastic wrappers through…
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With the Winter Olympics due to open on the 12th (or 13th Japan time), here’s a timely survey from iShare into the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of January 2010 497 members of the CLUb BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.8% of the sample were male, 33.2% in their twenties, 30.4% in their thirties, and 36.4% in their forties.

There’s been two interesting bits of news about Japanese athletes: first, Miho Takagi, the 15 year old speed skater with the unfortunately-designed outfit, has been mentioned on the news as much regarding her chance to be able to use English as her actual skating, then a lead story on one channel today was Kazuhiro Kokubo, the halfpipe snowboarder, getting banned from Japan’s welcoming ceremony for being sloppy-dressed at Narita airport, having – shock-horror – a loose tie and his shirt tails hanging out.

The Olympic committee have set a target of 10 medals for Vancouver, but 85% think Japan will get four or less…
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Media Interactive recently conducted a survey amongst 2ch (2 channel) users to find out more about their usage patterns. The highlights of the survey were reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of January 2010 exactly 1,000 people who had used 2ch were selected by some unspecified methodology. 53.4% of the sample were male, 0.8% in their teens, 19.4% in their twenties, 36.7% in their forties, 11.6% in their fifties, and 3.9% in their sixties.

The sample demographics seems like a very typical demographic for online survey companies, so it’s difficult to say if the demographic reflects 2ch users or reflects Media Interactive’s monitor panel.

The stand-out figure for me is how few use 2ch on the move; the notebook figure perhaps reflects the lack of public WiFi and the lack of penetration of wireless dongles, and the mobile phone figure is perhaps due to the fact that most mobile browsers are pretty terrible, and to use a “full browser” (mobile Opera and the like) requires a separate more expensive plan.

I wonder if there’s a business opportunity for someone to write a 2ch reader for Android or the iPhone?
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Much like Coke or Pepsi or Kanto versus Kansai, glossy versus matte LCDs, the subject of a recent iShare survey, is an eternal battle with entrenched favourites.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 18th of January 2010 500 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.8% of the sample were male, 31.2% in their twenties, 32.0% in their thirties, and 36.8% in their forties.

I’m firmly in the matte camp, although I’ve never actually used a glossy… When I bought my monitor they had both a glossy and matte version on offer, and whilst the colours from glossy were very vivid, I’d heard a lot about issues with reflections, and anyway the matte was cheaper…

Oh, and just to mention the iPad for the first time on this blog (although no doubt they’ll be a million and one surveys over the next couple of months), I hear a lot of people imagining how professionals in the field will use one, but it has a glossy screen which along with the LCD makes it a no-go – and that’s also ignoring that it’s not ruggedised, water resistant or even terribly sturdy-looking.

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As a sort-of follow-up on a recent survey into internet performance, this time we look with Marsh Inc and japan.internet.com at computer dissatisfaction.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 17th of January 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 2.3% in their teens, 17.7% 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.

I’m mostly satisfied with my setup at home – it’s no speed demon, but it wasn’t bought as one, although it could do with a little bit of extra memory as it gets a bit slow when memory fills up, and the mouse is rather wonky.

Interestingly, in this survey everyone had a home computer, although usually there’s always one or two who do their surveys from the office or an internet cafe – I presume they pre-screened the sample.
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goo Ranking have another fun FAIL survey, this time looking at what personal grooming in the opposite sex takes you aback, for men looking at women and women looking at men.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of December 2009 1,077 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were female, 8.7% in their teens, 15.3% in their twenties, 27.0% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.9% in their fifties, and 9.3% 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.
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goo Ranking took a look at what secrets that if you heard about someone of the opposite sex that you liked, they’d go down in your opinion, for both men hearing about women and women hearing about men.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of December 2009 1,077 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were female, 8.7% in their teens, 15.3% in their twenties, 27.0% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.9% in their fifties, and 9.3% 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.

Just to explain a couple, a Yankee is basically a juvenile delinquent, a gal is a young girl with dyed blonde hair and far too much makeup, and a gal-man is, according to Google Images, a guy with well, just look at the fine specimens here.
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iBridge Research Plus recently conducted a survey into family phone bills, which was reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 12th of January 2010 300 married female members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 6.0% of the sample were in their twenties, 38.3% in their thirties, 34.3% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 5.7% in their sixties.

Both our phone bills come out of the family budget. I personally run up 2,600 yen per month on just about the cheapest plan going, wifey 8,000 yen or so depending on how many voice calls she makes.

Without knowing the number of people with school-aged mobile phone owning children, it’s difficult to judge if the 41 people in Q1SQ1 who pay children’s bills is large or small.
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Having seen at the end of last year that over three in four are hurting financially, iShare followed up with a look at taking on a second job.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 7th of January 2010 495 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.4% of the sample were male, 33.5% in their twenties, 31.9% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

16.1% of the men unemployed seems a very high percentage, and with only 4% between the figures for those in their twenties versus those in their thirties and forties, one cannot really say it is due to student numbers. I’d love to see the age figures broken down by sex just to see if there’s a trend.

I suppose I should count What Japan Thinks as my second job, and I wish I could say that I’m using the earnings to save for travel, but sadly it barely makes enough to cover my living expenses gap…
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Juki Net is a national scheme that is basically a voluntary ID card used mostly to simplify access to local government services, so a new service introduced this month is machines at convenience stores that can issue official residence certificates, seal registration forms, etc, so this was the topic of a recent survey from iShare.

Demographics

Between the 22nd of December 2009 and 4th of January 2010 561 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.4% of the sample were male, 32.6% in their twenties, 32.3% in their thirties, and 35.1% in their forties.

Here’s a very interesting background article on what exactly Juki Net is and what concerns people have regarding it.
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