世論 What Japan Thinks

The power of Google, or more probably Yahoo! in the case of Japan, was revealed by this recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into blog services.

Demographics

Between the 28th and 30th of October 2009 300 members of the Marsh online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 2.0% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

I don’t think I’ve added a new blog to my regular reading list for a while, but the last Japan-related one I added was either through JapanSoc or Japan Probe’s headline list.

Another blog I’ve recently started reading regularly was found through a Google news RSS feed for one of my other blogs.

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It’s been a while since I’ve seen a survey on RSS feed reading habits, but looking at the data in this survey by iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.net perhaps the reason is a lack of interest.

Demographics

On the 17th of August 2009 300 members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample were male, 17.7% in their twenties, 31.7% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 4.3% in their sixties.

I’d be lost without my reader, Google Reader. I actually get just about the same number of feed readers as web site visitors per day, and if I exclude feed readers who click through, my RSS feed is most probably the more popular way of reading What Japan Thinks. If you’re not already subscribed, check out the links on the top left to see what I’m on about!

For the benefit of my Mum, using an RSS reader means you don’t need to set mine or my brother’s site as your home page!
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With Twitter showing little sign of adoption in Japan, and TwitterPoli, a site tracking Japanese politicians’ Tweets, having just 10 local officals and 6 national politicians being tracked, this recent survey from MyVoice looking at local government Tweeting (and other related topics) seems a bit pointless, quite frankly.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 27th of July 2009 562 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.0% of the sample were male, 34.5% in their twenties, 32.9% in their thirties, and 32.6% in their forties.

What Japan Thinks can be found on Twitter; most of the content is just automated Tweeting of my posts, but two or three times a week or so I post one-liner survey translations that don’t make it to the main blog.

Note that the Twitter usage rate of 6.2% in this survey versus 2.3% in the previously-mentioned survey can be ascribed to iShare having a more technically-minded audience; the simple fact that the survey respondent pool comes from people using an email forwarding service demonstrates this.

The two local authorities mentioned in Q4 can be read on Twitter; the links are Aomori Prefectural Office (ooh, nice background!) and Hokkaido Rikubetsucho.

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Yesterday was Sunday, but I was all jet-lagged, so please forgive me this post of postponed silliness (only mildly silly in itself, but I find the vast majority of Japanese blogs make Twitter look like Shakespeare) from goo Ranking into standby topics used in blogs, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 25th of May 2009 1,082 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.4% of the sample were male, 7.3% were in their teens, 16.0% in their twenties, 28.1% in their thirties, 27.9% in their forties, 10.8% in their fifties, and 9.9% 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. In this case, obviously 100% of the Japanese online population does not blog!

It’s a bit of a short survey, but after posting a detailed look at blogging habits I did comment about politics not featuring in the list of subjects, but here politics makes an appearance.

I should have some of them ready for when I have jet-lag…
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Although recently I’ve translated a number of surveys that promised more than they delivered, this time I feel this one, the fourth survey by MyVoice into blogging has a number of interesting revelations.

Demographics

Over the first five days of May 2009 14,823 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 35% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 19% aged fifty or older.

In Q4, it’s interesting that politics isn’t a selectable theme, but given that just 5% blogged about news in general, I wonder how small that would have been.

Regarding Q5, in Japan they are called blog parts, but in the West they are usually widgets or scriptlets. Looking through the above-linked web site I came across this entertaining one:

For Q6, I’ve been to a cake-related blogger event! I’ve also sadly had to turn down two invites to Danny Choo-organised and corporately-sponsored Tokyo CGM Night, although I did see his Dad’s shoe shop right beside the free cake venue, if that counts for anything.

For Q7, I’d have to immodestly answer “somewhere to use my knowledge, information to contribute to society”, although I do have a letting off steam blog hiding in the shadows… What is blogging to you?
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This recent survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into the web tool of the moment, micro-blogging, found that certainly for the sample used, there are very few Twitterers in Japan.

Demographics

On the 11th of May 2009 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.7% of the sample were male, 22.7% in their twenties, 26.3% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 21.7% in their fifties, and 4.7% in their sixties.

Despite me having a Twitter account and far more followers than I would expect to have, I never use the thing and quite frankly find the fascination with it inexplicable. In addition, it destroys the link structure of the web as everything gets routed through abbreviated URLs, and given that a lot of people use third-party tools to access Twitter, I don’t get full tracking of my incoming traffic.

I can confidently predict that Twitter or other micro-blogs (blogging in less than 200 characters per entry, a sort of blog for SMS) will not take off in Japan until they support emoji.
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As a professional blogger (perhaps) my requirements for a blogging service are very different from the average person, so I do find it a little hard to relate to this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Marsh Inc into blogging.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of November 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor panel completed an internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 by sex, and 20.0% were in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

In Q1 I think the amount of people reading commercial blogs is rather low, but I suspect it might be that because people are not seeing the URL as megacorp.com/blog, they assume that places are just hobby blogs, not commercial enterprises.

Most of the Japanese blogs, particularly the personal blogs, make Facebook look tasteful.
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I haven’t done such a straightforward topic for quite a while, so it’s nice to get back to basics with this short and to the point survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into blogs.

Demographics

On the first of July 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group successfully completed an internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were female, 3.3% in their teens, 13.9% in their twenties, 27.0% in their thirties, 30.0% in their forties, 12.1% in their fifties, 8.8% in their sixties, and 4.8% aged seventy or older.

There’s a couple of new-to-me sites in the list of hosts in Q2SQ. Lolipop Blog sounds downright suspicious but it seems quite innocent, a paid-for hosted blogging service. My Profile seems to be a mobile phone-targeted blogging service that will make your eyes bleed and your brain melt, and Laff Blog is from Yoshimoto Kogyo, the home of many of Japan’s comedians.

I’m not sure if writing diaries in mixi or other Social Networking Services was counted as blogging in Q2.
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A bit like when we looked at RSS readers two weeks ago, today we see in this survey from Marsh and reported on by japan.internet.com that podcasting also seems to be falling by the wayside.

Demographics

Over the 14th and 15th of May 2008 300 members of the Marsh online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and by age 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 5.3% aged sixty or older.

Q1 gives a jaw-droppingly high score for iPod ownership!

I’ve always wanted to do a podcast, but I don’t really like listening to recordings of my voice.
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That is commenting on blogs, of course, although the same is also true for what I think you were thinking of! This was one of the results published on japan.internet.com in a summary of a survey by Cross Marketing Inc into writing stuff on the internet.

Demographics

Over the 26th and 27th of December 2007 300 members of the Cross Marketing monitor pool successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. the sample was 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

One of my resolutions for the year is to network more, and although currently I write on bulletin boards just about every day, my rate of commenting on blogs is about once every two or three days. I suppose I should really set myself numeric targets such as 30 comments a month and keep track of how I’m doing.
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