世論 What Japan Thinks

Keitai (mobile phone) novels are a type of work often written episodically with consumption on a mobile phone in mind, often in the style of email messages complete with slang, emoticons and emoji. This survey, goo Research’s 8th regular look at these keitai novels found that the percentage consuming them on smartphones had tripled since March of last year.

Demographics

On the 28th of March 2011 1,139 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 17.6% in their twenties, 21.8% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 11.9% in their sixties.

The increase in readership on smartphones is curious; it would be interesting to see how many of the smartphone readers were ex-mobile phone readers who had upgraded, as I would guess it would be a significant percentage.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever read a “keitai novel”? (Sample size=1,136)

Yes (to SQ1)	29.0%
No	64.3%
Don’t know what that is	6.7%

Q1SQ1: In what media have you read a “keitai novel”? (Sample size=330, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Online (to SQ2)	260	78.8%
Printed book version	161	48.8%
Other	7	2.1%

Q1SQ2: On what kinds of device have you read a “keitai novel”? (Sample size=260, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Mobile phone	212	81.5%
Computer	127	48.8%
iPhone, BlackBerry, other smartphone	32	12.3%
PDA	9	3.5%
PHS	5	1.9%
Other	2	0.8%