世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s a quick ranking survery from goo Ranking to squeeze in as my entry to the September 2008 Japan Blog Matsuri on poorly-understood job titles in Japan. As the theme of this month’s Matsuri is language, I’ll list the original Japanese too. I’ll bet many of my readers will be stumped by some of the translations too!

Demographics

Between the 25th and 28th of July 2008 1,072 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 5.7% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 31,0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 10.5% in their fifties, and 10.4% 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.
It’s interesting that most of the confusing job titles are English ones. Number 7, Vice-President, refers not to people like Dick Cheney, but to something I notice in start-ups, where everyone in at the founding and/or with substantial shareholdings gets an honorary vice-presidentship for their troubles. I’m not sure what number 14 is doing on the list – an orchestra conductor is a 指揮者, shikisha – do they mean bus conductor?

I used to have an unofficial job title of Transcontinental Code Monkey (I might even still have the T-shirt somewhere), but that’s another story.

Oh, and for the Blog Matsuri I though this or this would have been much more appropriate, but the translation defeated me!
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With the nationwide introduction of taspo, Tobacco pASsPOrt – a proof of age certificate (well, proof that someone over twenty applied for the card) – now complete, DIMSDRIVE Research took their second look at taspo. The first look at taspo by DIMSDRIVE was back in May.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 14th of August 2008 7,381 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor group completed a members-only internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were female, 1.1% in their teens, 13.5% in their twenties, 33.5% in their thirties, 30.6% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 6.7% aged sixty or older.

One obvious effect of taspo is that half as many smokers are now using cigarette vending machines, which must be a serious financial blow to people who have them outside their shops.

At a slight tangent, but my office sells ciggies by the case, and last week they started a promotion with a free gift per pack of 200, with the clip art reading “Thank you father”. Monday the 15th of September is Respect for the Aged Day, so I suspect they are promoting killing your parents with cancer kindness.
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Perhaps I over-estimate the average Japanese consumer’s desire for value before reputation, but I found the results of this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into computers at home quite surprising.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 8th of September 2008 1,001 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 3.0% of the sample were male, 12.7% in their teens, 22.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.7% aged fifty or older.

NEC, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Sony have TV tuners in most of their line-up, as well as integrated features for recording television shows to disk, so their desktops, usually equipped with wide-screens, can easily double as televisions in cramped Japanese homes.

In the notebook field, Panasonic come a very poor 10th with not even 3% of the home market, despite an earlier survey showing them to be the most popular business notebook. The price of them at retail is frightening, quite frankly, and they come with very few of the bells and whistles that are loaded (overloaded?) onto the other brands. Wondering out loud with absolutely no information to back this up, but given that they have recently released Viera-branded (their TV technology) mobile phones, I wonder if they’ll build a Viera notebook (or even desktop) to try to capture more of the home market?

Finally, despite the sub-notebook market being big in the West at least, and despite many shops selling an Asus Eee PC for just 100 yen if you take out a two-year subscription to the 3G mobile internet service from E-Mobile, Asus and Acer with their Aspire One barely register in sales or purchase intentions.
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It’s now 19 months since Windows Vista appeared on the Japanese market (last January), so this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Marsh Inc into computer operating systems looked at how it was penetrating the market.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 25th of August 2008 300 home computer-owning members of Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sexes were split 50:50, 20.0% of the sample 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.

I’ve recently upgraded to Vista as it came with my new machine. I’d put myself in the moderately satisfied category, but I’m still trying to get it set up just as I desire, and the photo management software and nengajo (New Year postcard) management software that I specially bought as a set had a “Windows Vista compatible” sticket, but I find that really means “not incompatible with Vista” as it requires full permissions in order to run.
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Surprisingly high levels of data security were uncovered in this recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported by japan.internet.com into computer backups.

Demographics

Over the 18th and 19th of August 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were male, 20.0% 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 haven’t backed-up for ages and ages, although the wife pesters me to do it weekly or so. Hopefully now that we have our new PC with a DVD-R I can set up a regular schedule. Can anyone recommend good software for that? Talking of backups, I don’t do it for the blog either…

I’m surprised, however, at the numbers who do back up, and perhaps in the full survey we would find answers to questions like why did they start backing up, have they ever had to restore, and did the backups restore correctly.
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Here’s a pair of surveys that were too short to be separate articles and not quite silly enough for Sundays, so I’ll just post them now as the results have a few talking points in them. As usual, goo Ranking conducted the surveys, one on what cost-saving measures people wish their employer would introduce, and what secret struggles people are engaged in at work.

Demographics

For the first survey, between the 23rd and 25th of June 2008 1,014 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 6.5% in their teens, 14.5% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 8.8% aged sixty or older. For the second survey, between the 25th and 28th of July 2008 1,072 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 5.7% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 31,0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 10.5% in their fifties, and 10.4% 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.

My company doesn’t pay overtime; to be precise, there is a fixed amount of overtime built into one’s salary, 18 hours per month, I think. However, if I work past 10 pm (I only ever do that when I have teleconferences from home) they pay a measely time-and-a-quarter. The telephone meetings usually last under an hour, so I would never, ever, dream of claiming the scheduled two hours.

Back to cost-saving; it would have to be business trips for my team, followed by changing the budgeting system so that the team doesn’t lose its budget if it doesn’t spend all its allocation by the end of the year, leading to a lot of pointless purchasing in the weeks leading up to then.

My secret battle is… ahh, it’s secret, as there’s a chance he reads this blog. The other one is timing using all the hot water in the kettle by lunchtime so my colleague cannot make a cup of coffee during the lunch break and disturb my peace and quiet by SLURPING ALL THE *!%$ING TIME!!1!1!111!
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This rather interesting look at electronic item purchasing was conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Over the 29th and 30th of July 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 60.0% of the sample were female, 2.1% in their teens, 9.4% in their twenties, 46.1% in their thirties, 22.1% in their forties, 10.3% in their fifties,5.2% in their sixties, and 4.8% aged seventy or older.

My last computer was bought at the giant Yodobashi Camera in Umeda Osaka, as my wife suddenly took a fancy to upgrading and I didn’t think she’d like to be dragged down to Den-Den Town to circle the bargain stores looking for the cheapest bargain. Our camera was similarly bought there, but my current mobile phone came from work; although we make the things at the office, staff discount amounts to no more than 5% off the new models, but they don’t copy the settings over from the old phone. Although I got my current phone at around half price (6,000 yen instead of 12,000 yen or so), the general hassle means that next time I’m upgrading as a dealer shop!
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The SoftBank adverts are my favourites, although there is always the risk of over-exposure with the dog even recently featuring in a photo book and a DVD. However, this recent survey from BlogCh showed no signs of flagging popularity when they asked about mobile phone television commercials.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 17th of July 2008 370 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 14.6% in their twenties, 49.2% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, and 7.6% in their teens or over fifty.

I wonder if they’ll have the SoftBank dog using the iPhone? Given that another survey today indicated that the euphoria has passed, will they trot out their dog to flog some more kit? Will they introduce a new character? They had five rather unpleasant cats recently but they only lasted a week or so. Oh, and here is Dante Carver, the black guy who plays second fiddle to a white dog.

Q3 also brings me to another pet hate (as it were) with the SoftBank mutt coming tops as a fireworks partner. Back in the UK, in the run-up to November the 5th they’d be public service advertisements and other reminders to keep pets indoors to avoid them getting spooked by fireworks, but I’ve never heard of such a thing over here.

Finally, if you’re a SoftBank customer, here’s your chance to win a talking Oto-san bank or strap and free Oto-san themed games and deco-mail!
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With at least two manufacturers of generic medicines advertising on television, this recent survey from goo Research conducted in conjunction with the Yomiuri Shimbun, revealed a high degree of awareness of generic medicines in Japan.

Demographics

Over the end of May and the start of June 2008 1,010 members of the goo Research monitor panel aged forty or older completed a private internet-based questionnaire. More detailed demographics were not given.

I can’t be bothered with generics as I infrequently take medicines with generic substitutes, and the only one I tke regularly is still under patent, so there’s no generic alternative available.

Here’s an advertisement that often appears that asks people to pluck up the courage to ask the quack for an alternative.

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With the sub-notebook market hotting up, and the Asus Eee PC available even in the big electrical superstores at a reasonable price, making it the top-selling portable according to Kakaku.com at the time or writing, this is a good tim to take a look at a recent survey published by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research into home computers, with the column focusing on portable machines.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 3rd of July 2008 1,101 members of the goo Research online monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 8.7% in their teens, 26.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.6% aged fifty or older.

In addition to the previously-mentioned Eee PC, other people getting in on the market in Japan include HP with their HP 2133 Mini-Note PC and local maker Kohjinsha with their imaginatively-named SC3KP06A. I’m hoping that the Acer Aspire One will be out by the time I pass back through duty-free at the end of the month, and judging by a recent article on The Register I’ll be spoilt for choice as a flood of Intel Atom-based sub-notebooks come out at the end of this month. I want the Linux one, not for any anti-Microsoft reasons, but just that I’m a stingey git…
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