世論 What Japan Thinks

Here is my first “best of 2010″ surveys, a look by iShare at internet slang in 2010. Not all the words are from 2010, in fact most of them are a bit older, but it is the awareness that is being investigated in this survey.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of October 2010 665 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.0% of the sample were male, 26.9% in their twenties, 35.0% in their thirties, and 38.0% in their forties.

That was a lot of fun to translate, and I learnt a bit tonight! If I have made a few mistakes along the way, please let me know.

Here’s a short animation of orz:

Research results

Q1: Have you ever visited 2 channel or a 2 channel summary site? (Sample size=665)

	All	Male N=359	Female N=306
Yes, frequently	24.8%	27.0%	22.2%
Yes, sometimes	47.1%	47.4%	46.7%
No, never	28.1%	25.6%	31.0%

Q2: Have you ever used mixi or other Social Networking Services? (Sample size=665)

	All	Male N=359	Female N=306
Yes, frequently	23.9%	20.3%	28.1%
Yes, sometimes	31.4%	30.6%	32.4%
No, never	44.7%	49.0%	39.5%

Q3A: Do you know the meaning of any of the internet slang in Q3SQ below? (Sample size=665)

	All	Male N=359	Female N=306
Yes (to SQ)	82.9%	84.4%	81.0%
No	17.1%	15.6%	19.0%

Q3B: Do you know the meaning of any of the internet slang in Q3SQ below? (Sample size=665)

	2ch often N=165	2ch sometimes N=313	2ch never N=187
Yes (to SQ)	98.8%	90.4%	56.1%
No	1.2%	9.6%	43.9%

Q3C: Do you know the meaning of any of the internet slang in Q3SQ below? (Sample size=665)

	mixi often N=159	mixi sometimes N=209	mixi never N=297
Yes (to SQ)	93.1%	84.2%	76.4%
No	6.9%	15.8%	23.6%

Q3SQ: Which of the following internet slang do you know the meaning of? (Sample size=665)

Slang	Meaning	All	Male N=359	Female N=306
ぐぐる	Guguru, to Google	92.2%	90.4%	94.4%
orz	Disappointed	81.7%	79.9%	83.9%
DQN	A person with a stupid name	73.1%	76.6%	69.0%
ワロス	Warosu, to laugh	71.5%	72.9%	69.8%
痛車	Itasha, a painful car	65.9%	72.3%	58.1%
厨	Chuu, a suffix added to indicate a childish utterance, etc	63.0%	65.0%	60.5%
ノシ	Noshi, waving	62.8%	60.4%	65.7%
リア充	Rea-juu, someone who has got a life	60.6%	69.0%	50.4%
JK	Joushikiteki ni Kangaeru, commonsense way of thinking	60.6%	69.0%	50.4%
kwsk	KuWaShiKu, detailed	58.3%	60.1%	56.0%
wktk	Waku-waku teka-teka, being flushed with excited anticipation	56.3%	55.8%	56.9%
希ガス	Kigasu(ru), suspicious	53.0%	57.4%	47.6%
自宅警備員	Jitaku Keibiin, home guard or hikikomori	52.5%	57.1%	46.8%
スイーツ（笑）	Sweets (laugh), often sarcastic label added to female-oriented sweets, designs, etc	49.4%	48.8%	50.0%
今北産業	Ima kita sangyou, I’ve just come so give me a three-line summary of what’s going on	47.5%	50.2%	44.4%
情弱	Short for jouhou jakusha, someone on the wrong side of the digital divide	46.8%	54.8%	37.1%
ggrks	lmgtfy	46.3%	48.8%	43.1%
メシウマ状態	Meshi uma joutai, Schadenfreude	44.8%	48.2%	40.7%
ディスる	Disuru, to diss	41.7%	43.2%	39.9%
ksk	KaSoKu, literally accelaration, particularly of a fast-flowing comment thread	28.3%	31.4%	24.6%