世論 What Japan Thinks

The huge set of contact lens and glasses chains will make little sense to anyone outside Japan, but in this survey by iShare into shops where one has purchased contact lens the surprising to me result was that just over a quarter last bought lenses online.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 4th of June 2012 1,183 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 66.6% of the sample were female, ages ranged from 16 to 60 years old, and the respondents came from all over Japan, and all had purchased contact lenses for their own use within the last year.

When I first came to Japan I wore contact lenses, but I never replaced them in Japan. Furthermore, I banged my head somewhere and lost a lens, so rather than try to struggle my way through buying contact lenses in Japanese, I just gave up and switched to glasses!

I’m really surprised though at just 28% buying online; I would have thought given that most people choose soft lenses (actually, I don’t have a statistic for that!), and given the reliability of delivery services, placing a regular online order would be the cheapest way to refill one’s prescription. I wonder how the prices compare? Do any of my readers have experience of this?

Research results

Q1: Where did you most recently buy contact lenses from? (Sample size=1,187)

	All	Male N=395	Female N=788
Contact lens shop (to SQ1)	44.0%	44.6%	43.8%
Internet site	27.9%	26.3%	28.7%
Optician	19.1%	18,5%	19.4%
Glasses shop (to SQ2)	9.0%	10.6%	8.1%

Q1SQ1: Which contact lens shop did you most recently buy contact lenses from? (Sample size=521)

	All	Male N=176	Female N=345
Eye City	42.0%	40.9%	42.6%
Heart Up	8.3%	9.7%	7.5%
Price Contact	5.6%	6.3%	5.2%
Ace Contact	5.4%	4.5%	5.8%
Yaesu Contact	4.6%	6.3%	3.8%
Chuo Contact	4.4%	3.4%	4.9%
Menicon direct sales shop	3.8%	4.0%	3.8%
Fuji Contact	2.1%	2.8%	1.7%
Flower Contact	2.1%	1.1%	2.6%
Fine	1.3%	0.0%	2.0%
Contact Land	1.2%	0.6%	1.4%
Bic Contact	1.2%	0.0%	1.7%
Contact Lens Gallery	1.0%	1.7%	0.6%
City Contact	1.0%	1.1%	0.9%
Hirokoji Contact	1.0%	1.7%	0.6%
J Contact	0.8%	1.1%	0.6%
Tokai Megane Contact	0.8%	0.6%	0.9%
Hamano Contact	0.6%	0.0%	0.9%
Best Megane Contact	0.6%	0.6%	0.6%
My Contact	0.6%	1.1%	0.3%
Apple Contact	0.4%	0.6%	0.3%
Add Megane Contact	0.4%	1.1%	0.0%
Contact Plaza	0.4%	0.6%	0.3%
Lens Direct	0.4%	0.6%	0.3%
Eye Space	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Ekimae Contact	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Hana Contact	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Your Contact	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
None of the above	10.4%	9.7%	10.7%

Q1SQ2: Which glasses shop did you most recently buy contact lenses from? (Sample size=106)

	All	Male N=42	Female N=64
Megane Super	16.0%	19.0%	14.1%
Megane Ichiba	8.5%	11.9%	6.3%
Megane no Aigan, AIGAN	5.7%	7.1%	4.7%
Megane no Miki, Paris Miki	4.7%	0.0%	7.8%
Megane no Tanaka	3.8%	4.8%	3.1%
Washin	3.8%	2.4%	4.7%
Eye Megane, Heart Megane	1.9%	0.0%	3.1%
Megane 21	1.9%	4.8%	0.0%
Megane Salon Look, Look Contact	0.9%	2.4%	0.0%
Megane Drug	0.9%	2.4%	0.0%
Megane no Yonezawa	0.9%	0.0%	1.6%
Ginza Megane	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
None of the above	50.9%	45.2%	54.7%

Q2: Of all the contact lens and glasses shops where you have bought contact lens, which were you the most satisfied with? (Sample size=1,187)

	All	Male N=395	Female N=788
Eye City	21.0%	21.3%	20.9%
Heart Up	4.2%	4.8%	3.9%
Menicon direct sales shop	3.9%	3.3%	4.2%
Price Contact	2.6%	2.5%	2.7%
Ace Contact	2.3%	1.8%	2.5%
Chuo Contact	2.0%	1.8%	2.2%
Yaesu Contact	2.0%	2.5%	1.8%
Lens Direct	1.7%	1.8%	1.6%
Megane Super	1.1%	1.5%	0.9%
Megane Ichiba	1.0%	1.5%	0.8%
Flower Contact	1.0%	0.5%	1.3%
Apple Contact	0.8%	0.8%	0.9%
Bic Contact	0.8%	0.8%	0.8%
Fuji Contact	0.8%	1.3%	0.5%
Megane no Aigan, AIGAN	0.8%	1.0%	0.6%
Hirokoji Contact	0.7%	1.0%	0.5%
Tokai Megane Contact	0.6%	0.5%	0.6%
Hamano Contact	0.6%	0.3%	0.8%
Contact Land	0.5%	0.5%	0.5%
City Contact	0.5%	0.8%	0.4%
Fine	0.5%	0.0%	0.8%
Megane no Miki, Paris Miki	0.5%	0.3%	0.6%
J Contact	0.4%	0.8%	0.3%
Best Megane Contact	0.4%	0.3%	0.5%
Washin	0.4%	0.5%	0.4%
Contact Plaza	0.3%	0.5%	0.3%
Contact Lens Gallery	0.3%	0.8%	0.1%
My Contact	0.3%	0.5%	0.3%
Megane no Tanaka	0.3%	0.3%	0.4%
Add Megane Contact	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%
Ginza Megane	0.2%	0.3%	0.1%
Megane Salon Look, Look Contact	0.2%	0.3%	0.1%
Megane 21	0.2%	0.5%	0.0%
Eye Space	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
Eye Megane, Heart Megane	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
Your Contact	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
Ekimae Contact	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Hana Contact	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Megane Drug	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Megane no Yonezawa	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
None of the above	46.4%	44.6%	47.3%