世論 What Japan Thinks

One aspect where Japan lags far behind many other countries is the availability of Wi-Fi, so to see what people were doing regarding internet access when away from home, goo Research conducted a survey into Wi-Fi, the highlights of which were reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Over the 18th and 19th of September 2012 1,088 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 12.7% aged sixty or older.

The guy above has found the Nintendo hotspot at the Tokyo Pokemon Center!

The number of access points in Japan is steadily increasing, but mostly branded for each of the mobile carriers, so one needs an account to access them, but fortunately the access is usually free with your mobile phone plan. SoftBank in particular are popping up everywhere, so they must be offering nice incentives for shops to install them, and docomo is slowly spreading through the rail network. Just last week the station next to the office got Wi-Fi, but sadly I cannot pick it up from my desk!

I was surprised to see tethering so low down on the list, however. In Q1SQ, “On the move” may include riding on public transport – some long-distance busses and bullet trains, for instance, offer such services.

Research results

First of all, the whole sample was asked if they often accessed the internet when away from home. 42.7% said yes, so these 461 people were asked the following.

Q1: How do you access the internet when away from home? (Sample size=461, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
3G connection (mobile phone, etc)	230	49.9%
Wi-Fi (to SQ)	204	44.3%
Data transmission device (docomo, e-mobile, UQ-Wimax, b-mobile, etc)	136	29.5%
Tethering	16	3.5%
Other	24	5.2%

Q1SQ: From which of these places do you often access Wi-Fi? (Sample size=204, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Restaurant, cafe, etc	126	61.8%
Public transport facilities (station, etc)	85	41.7%
Work, school	85	41.7%
On the move	82	40.2%
Other	4	2.0%

When these 204 people were asked why they use Wi-Fi, 126 people said because it was cheap or free, 66 people said the connections were fast, 49 people said there was wide availability of access, 33 people said that there was no other transmission environment for them to use, and 15 people that the signal stability was high.