世論 What Japan Thinks

I don’t know if it’s all part of the mood of self-restraint or economising since the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake Disaster, but the two main survey sources I use have been printing shorter than usual surveys, which means I’m seeing an economic effect of the recent earthquake, which was also the subject of a recent survey by iShare.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 11th of April 2011 761 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service employed either full-time or part-time or self-employed completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.1% of the sample were male, 2.1% were in their twenties, 45.5% were in their thirties, and 52.4% in their forties. Due to iShare making an error in reporting the male-female ratio, I can deduce that the original sample was 922 people, so 161 people, or 17.5% of the original sample were either unemployed, in casual work, or full-time homemakers.

I’m very surprised that only the minority have seen adverse effects, as it seems that almost all businesses are being affected to some extent by the mood of self-restraint, or even just simply breaks in the supply chain due to upstream or downstream companies being directly affected by the earthquake or tsunami.

However, my own workplace has had no direct adverse effects, but I suppose working in research and development we don’t have any real customers.
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Unfortunately, the reports on japan.internet.com of surveys from goo Research recently took a turn for the worse with only one, not three, data sets being reported in detail. However, I will keep using them, but there will be more text and less tables. The first of these abbreviated surveys is on Twitter, with the focus being on getting information with, I suspect, the recent Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster being prominent in people’s minds when answering.

Demographics

Betweem the 12th and 18th of April 2011 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties. 15.9% in their forties, 15.2% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

I didn’t use Twitter to get any information, but I’m glad that not too many people seemed to have found information such as that from the French embassy useful.
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With Golden Week upon us, and with it also being the last holiday for toll road discounts, there will be a lot of people out and about in their cars, and many will be stopping at a service station to eat, where they might have their last chance for a while to try out curious local foods at motorway service stations. I’m on holiday, so you’ll have to make do with silliness for the time being!

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of March 2011 1,070 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-base questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 13.1% in their twenties, 24.7% in their thirties, 23.7% in their forties, 13.3% in their fifties, and 15.0% 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.

All the foods link to images or videos of the food.

Can’t say there’s anything there I’ll be rushing out to eat, and number 18 looks a bit suspicious…
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With the earthquake having knocked out a lot of power generation in the Tokyo area, one of the methods being mooted for saving electricity is to increase telecommuting, the topic of a recent survey by iShare.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 11th of April 2011 670 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 60.6% of the sample were male, 2.4% were in their twenties, 46.7% in their thirties, and 50.9% in their forties. All of the sample were employed and worked outside the home.

At work we have a telecommute environment complete with a quite frankly horrendous email client and a remote meeting application that I’ve never used. However, this environment can only be accessed via work notebook computers, but even though we have a draconian set of information security rules I think almost everyone else in the office works around them; I try to avoid working at home, so put no effort into making an easier environment for myself.

Regarding telecommuting and saving power – my employer too will be promoting it this summer, despite being outside the affected areas, and of course everyone in the office noticed that the additional load from a home air conditioner is more than that saved by one less body in the office and one less body in the trains. We’re forbidden from working in a coffee shop, so we can’t even borrow someone else’s cool air for work…
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goo Ranking recently took a look at what makes people feel uncomfortable on a train.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of March 2011 1,070 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-base questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 13.1% in their twenties, 24.7% in their thirties, 23.7% in their forties, 13.3% in their fifties, and 15.0% 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.

I’d bet that most of my readers would feel irritated or frustrated rather than uncomfortable by someone stealing their seat, but I suppose feeling awkward is a very Japanese reaction. The two number sixes are similar, I think. Personally, I’ve been embarrassed by number two (especially if it includes drooling, snoring and sleeping on someone’s shoulder), number three, and number nine.
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Despite today being Silly Sunday, and despite this survey being from goo Ranking, I have to apologise for this actully quite sensible and useful set of results from goo Ranking, when they looked at what people first installed after buying their smartphones. I’ve linked to the Android versions of the applications, and some are exclusively for Android.

Demographics

Over the 18th and 19th of February 2011 1,097 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.6% of the sample were female, 6.8% in their teens, 21.0% in their twenties, 32.1% in their thirties, 24.0% in their forties, 9.0% in their fifties, and 7.1% 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. Obviously, only those with smartphones could answer, but how many that was, it doesn’t say.

As I don’t have a smartphone I cannot say anything about the software below. Evernote, however, is something I keep hearing about but never really seeing the point of; perhaps if I actually used it it might make some sense?
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