By Ken Y-N ( July 1, 2009 at 00:06)
· Filed under Business, Polls
The pink bunny is the mascot character of the not-very-sadly missed English school, Nova, which succumbed to market forces last year, although the name has been bought out and the rabbit has returned from the grave and been spotted in television advertisements. The survey presented here is from iShare, where they looked at bankruptcy.
Demographics
Between the 9th and 12th of June 2009 558 mobile phone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.9% of the sample were male, 38.4% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, and 30.5% in their forties.
If I’ve made mistakes in identifying any of the companies in Q2, please send me corrections and I’ll update as required!
I don’t think any English-speaking foreigners in Japan could have been surprised at Nova’s demise, as it had been ailing for many a month and it was quite frankly a mercy killing when the rabbit finally shuffled off this mortal coil. Read the rest of this entry »
Although this survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into cosmetics shopping sites has as the survey base women who are already online, discovering that the majority of them who have shopped for cosmetics in the last year have does it at least once online in that period.
Demographics
On the 22nd of June 2009 300 female members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 24.3% of the sample were in their twenties, 38.0% in their thirties, 24.3% in their forties, 10.0% in their fifties, and 3.3% in their sixties.
I don’t think my wife’s bought online, except for a tester kit that cost a bit of money for delivery. She’s won quite a bit, though, including one that came with a Christian book that seemed to be part of a vaguely pyramid-shaped affiliate scheme… Read the rest of this entry »
By Ken Y-N ( June 18, 2009 at 15:29)
· Filed under Business, Polls
Here’s a whole lot of buzzwords relating to the business of digital signage, the subject of a survey conducted by iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com.
Demographics
On the 8th of June 2009 300 members of the iBridge monitor group resident in the Tokyo area completed an internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample were male, 15.3% in their twenties, 33.0% in their thirties, 33.7% in their forties, 14.3% in their fifties, and 3.7% aged sixty or older.
In Q1 I present both the English and the Japanese. For my readers who don’t understand Japanese, you’ll just have to take my word on the difference between “sign” and “signage” or “bulletin board” and “board”. For my readers who do understand, I cannot explain the difference in usage between “sign” and “signage” or “bulleting board” and “board”, except that’s just how the buzzwords have been coined!
In Q2, a number of the Tokyo lines have television screens in them that display information such as upcoming stops, platform exit information, news and advertising, colloquially known as the “Train Channel”. Read the rest of this entry »
Here is the latest set of results from goo Research’s regular monthly survey into internet advertising, their sixth in the series, reported on by japan.internet.com.
Demographics
Between the 25th and 28th of May 2009 1,089 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, and 27.9% aged fifty or older.
I was disappointed to see (but not surprised looking at my revenue!) that links such as me urging you to buy crappy keitai straps from Japan don’t seem to find much favour with Japanese, but email newsletters being even further down the pecking order seemed a surprise, and I’m not really sure why contextual ads come dead last. Read the rest of this entry »
By Ken Y-N ( June 9, 2009 at 23:29)
· Filed under Business, Polls
Given that the interest rates on saving in Japan are laughably miniscule, I am surprised by the results of this survey from MyVoice into the usage of foreign currency savings (the sixth time the survey has been conducted) showing that about as many people are profiting (or not as the case may be) from exchange rate movements as from superior interest rates.
Demographics
Over the first five days of May 2009 14,952 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 34% in their thirties, 31% in their forties, and 19% aged fifty or older.
I’ve got a bit of foreign savings (as I’m sure all my resident foreigner readers do!), but given the recent collapse in the UK pound exchange rate and in UK interest rates it’s not doing terribly well, to say the least! I’m not interested in active trading, however. Read the rest of this entry »
With the recent introduction of the Eco Points system of awards for buying environmentally-friendly products (although there’s still no system for spending said points), this recent survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into said Eco Points system found that digital terrestrial-ready televisions were the most popular electronics that fall under the system’s umbrella.
Demographics
Between the 20th and 22nd of May 2009 1,088 members of the goo Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.8% and their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.
If you wish to take advantage of the system yourself, you need to keep both the shop receipt and the guarantee that usually comes in a green envelope. In addition, if you wish to take advantage of bonus points for getting your old items recycled, also keep the recycling receipt. You then take them all along to the appropiate desk at your local city hall (I think) to get credited the points, then wait until the rewards are decided. I saw on a program last week that they are thinking of offering regional delicacies and other over-priced tat. Read the rest of this entry »
This survey from MyVoice into corporate sports looked at the issue of companies funding their own teams that, on the whole, compete in corporate leagues filled with lots of other company-funded teams.
Demographics
Over the first five days of May 2009 14,884 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 34% in their thirties, 31% in their forties, and 19% aged fifty or older.
There’s a lot of corporate teams in Japan where the sportspeople are employed full-time by the company to be representatives, although the current harsh economic times has seen the death of the amuzingly-named Seibu Prince Rabbits.
My employer also has such teams, with basketball being the main sport that I can think of. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a ranking survey from goo Ranking, as usual, that I never quite got round to translating when it was published last month, looking at the top thirty curious product ideas in Japan.
Demographics
Between the 23rd and 25th of March 2009 1,043 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 7.8% in their teens, 17.1% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 24.8% in their forties, 11.4% in their fifties, and 10.7% 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.
Bras for men is not an original idea, as this video demonstrates:
Most university graduates start work in Japan on or around the first of April, so this survey from Macromill Inc interviewed the fresh faces who had been at their companies for just over a month to learn about then new members of society’s opinions.
Demographics
On the 12th and 13th of May 2009 516 members of the Macromill monitor group who were born in 1986 or 1987 and had found a job completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female.
Wow, there’s a lot of very good information in this survey, and I could easily spend the next day or two drawing conclusions! Note in Q3SQ2 the points of dissatisfaction for women, suggesting that even after just a month in the job, gender discrimination is already obvious to them. On the other hand, in Q5 one in eight women plan to quit when they get married, and then another quarter after they have a baby.
In Q7, I hate drinking sessions at work and would probably choose all the reasons listed, except that it’s talking shop all the time that irritates me, not not talking shop as asked! Read the rest of this entry »
By Ken Y-N ( May 25, 2009 at 22:56)
· Filed under Business, Polls
I’m sure most of us who have worked in Japan have experienced a colleague sleeping during meetings, so to try to put some concrete numbers on the phenomenon iShare conducted a survey into sleeping at work.
Demographics
Between the 28th of April and the 7th of May 2009 405 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private mobile-phone internet-based questionnaire. 54.3% of the sample were male, 32.3% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, and 35.1% in their forties.
Power-napping, catching 15 minutes of forty winks during lunch break, does have definite benefits, and indeed napping salons have started popping up recently, although I do suspect that due to the short night-time sleep hours the Japanese power-nap is more of a necessity than a lifestyle choice.
I don’t power-nap as I use lunch as an opportunity to prepare articles for WJT, but I keep thinking I should. However, my desk is not sleep-friendly and we don’t have any relaxation space in the office. Read the rest of this entry »
The pink bunny is the mascot character of the not-very-sadly missed English school, Nova, which succumbed to market forces last year, although the name has been bought out and the rabbit has returned from the grave and been spotted in television advertisements. The survey presented here is from iShare, where they looked at bankruptcy.
Although this survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into 
Here’s a whole lot of buzzwords relating to the business of 
Here is the latest set of results from goo Research’s regular monthly survey into 
Given that the interest rates on saving in Japan are laughably miniscule, I am surprised by the results of this survey from MyVoice into the 
With the recent introduction of the Eco Points system of awards for buying environmentally-friendly products (although there’s still no system for spending said points), this recent survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into said 
Most university graduates start work in Japan on or around the first of April, so this survey from Macromill Inc interviewed the fresh faces who had been at their companies for just over a month to learn about then 
I’m sure most of us who have worked in Japan have experienced a colleague sleeping during meetings, so to try to put some concrete numbers on the phenomenon iShare conducted a survey into 
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