世論 What Japan Thinks

This recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, was their fourth regular (once every two months) survey into keitai novels, with keitai being the shortened Japanese word for mobile phone, and keitai novels being novels designed to be read on mobile phones, featuring shorter sentences and episodic chapters, and I presume graphical devices like emoji.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 24th of March 2010 1,091 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16/3% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I’ve never even seen a keitai novel, so in the interests of research, please wait while I check Google.

The first hit is Wild Strawberry, and looking around the books seem to be mostly written in slang, in the loose style of emails of young women. Hmm, I don’t think I’ll be bothering.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever read a “keitai novel”? (Sample size=1,091)

Yes (to SQ1)	20.5%
No	72.6%
Don’t know what it is	6.9%

The percentage of people who have read a keitai novel has been slowly but steadily decreasing, perhaps suggesting the keitai novel boom is over.

Q1SQ1: In what media have you read a “keitai novel”? (Sample size=224, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Online (to SQ2)	184	82.1%
Printed book version	104	46.4%
Other	6	2.7%

Q1SQ2: On what kinds of device have you read a “keitai novel”? (Sample size=184, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Mobile phone	149	81.0%
Computer	95	51.6%
iPhone, BlackBerry, other smartphone	7	3.8%
PDA	3	1.6%
PHS	2	1.1%
Other	0	0.0%