世論 What Japan Thinks

iShare’s latest look at issues surrounding the earthquake on March 11th was at usage of web services in times of emergency.

Demographics

On the 15th of April 2011 1,193 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 42.3% of the sample were male, 8.9% in their twenties, 45.7% in their thirties, and 45.4% in their forties.

I confirmed my safety first via email to my parents, then by blog. Although I didn’t directly post to any social web service, my blog posts automatically end up on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn so I suppose technically I did use such a web service as asked by Q1 and Q1SQ.

The last time there was a disaster was the derailment of the JR train at Amagasaki, on the line I used then, but that time my parents confirmed my safety via a post I made that got published on the BBC news web site.

Research results

Q1: Using an internet connection (other than a mobile phone), do you have an account with a web service where you can contact other people? (Sample size=1,193)

	All	Male N=624	Female N=569
Yes (to SQ)	74.5%	70.7%	78.7%
No	25.5%	29.3%	21.3%

Q1SQ: Since the earthquake on March 11th, have you used such a web service to confirm someone else’s or your own safety? (Sample size=889)

	All	Male N=441	Female N=448
Yes	38.5%	34.7%	42.2%
No	36.0%	40.8%	31.3%
Don’t have anyone to confirm safety with online	25.5%	24.5%	26.6%

Q2A: After the earthquake on the 11th or March phone lines were congested so people couldn’t connect and email was delayed. Therefore, it was reported, people used mixi and other SNSs, Twitter, Skype, etc to keep in touch. In the future would you also like to use web services in times of emergency? (Sample size=1,193)

	All	Male N=624	Female N=569
Definitely want to use	35.6%	31.7%	39.9%
Want to investigate using	42.5%	44.7%	40.1%
Don’t want to use	21.9%	23.6%	20.0%

Q2B: After the earthquake on the 11th or March phone lines were congested so people couldn’t connect and email was delayed. Therefore, it was reported, people used mixi and other SNSs, Twitter, Skype, etc to keep in touch. In the future would you also like to use web services in times of emergency? (Sample size=1,193)

	All	Have web service account N=889	Don’t have web service account N=304
Definitely want to use	35.6%	45.9%	5.6%
Want to investigate using	42.5%	44.2%	37.5%
Don’t want to use	21.9%	9.9%	56.9%