世論 What Japan Thinks

I run an ad blocker, although I keep Google ads live (and I hope you do too!) as they are mostly pretty lightweight and quick to load, and most importantly usually text-only. I do very occasionally click search ads but don’t really find them that useful, and this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and performed by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into web search showed that a lot of Japanese do too.

Demographics

Over the 3rd and 4th of March 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample was male, 3.6% in their teens, 15.2% in their twenties, 37.6% in their thirties, 25.8% in their forties, 9.1% in their fifties, 5.8% in their sixties, and 3.0% aged seventy or older.

Note that because many television and print advertisements feature search keywords rather than URLs, rather than engage in SEO activities to naturally boost a product’s home page the companies buy advertising space on the major search engines, thus, perhaps, Japanese people pay more attention to the sponsored links.

From what I’ve heard, if you want to advertise Google of course gives you the largest audience, but Yahoo!’s customers are more click-happy and keen to buy, although Yahoo! has a higher minimum cost per click charge. MSN/Windows Live seems actually to be the best from an overall package point of view, but looking at the results below, if you’re trying to sell in Japan you won’t see much business!
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Just in case you, like me, cannot relate to many of the people in your office, here’s some tips from goo Ranking, where they asked members of the goo Research monitor panel on how to improve relations with your workmates.

Demographics

Bewteen the 22nd and 25th of January 2008 1,126 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.4% of the sample was female, 3.6% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 35.1% in their thirties, 27.3% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 7.3% 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.

For me, 1 is difficult as there is the issue of not having a common background, and sometimes trying to communicate is a strain; 2 is a non-starter as there aer few veggie options at our staff canteen, and all of them have the manners of peasants – slurping is the Japanese way, granted, but speaking with your mouth full and shovelling food into your gob is just too much for me to cope with; for 3, my wife is far better company and all they do is talk about work or colleagues that I don’t know; 4, baby stories bore me; 5 I try to do; and for 6 I don’t understand their complaints as we have mutually alien concepts of what work really is. 7 is probably a bad translation…

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the spelling in the headline…
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This is a most interesting survey, given that there is currently being quite a shake-up in the mobile phone market, with SoftBank finally getting their act in gear and finally reversing their many year decline. To see how the market is changing, MyVoice conducted a survey into mobile phone service provider image. This is the seventh time this survey has been conducted, once a year since 2002.

Demographics

Over the first five days of February 2008 15,391 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 16% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 28% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

A white dog and a black guy are responsible for reversing SoftBank’s decline. I’ve heard people complain that there are racist undertones as the black guy is the offspring of a Japanese woman and dog, but I think that’s reading far too much into things. Here’s a blog translating one advert and here’s news of the dog releasing a photo book.

Note that today NTT DoCoMo have announced that they are joining au and SoftBank in offering free calls 24 hours per day between family members.
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I’m the odd one out in the office as just about everyone else uses their portable computer rather than their desktop as their main computer for less compute-intensive tasks such as email, document preparation, etc. This perhaps is a common situation in other offices too, given the results of a survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into notebook computers and mobility.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of February 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either the private or public sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.9% were male, 9.7% in their twenties, 38.8% in their thirties, 34.8% in their forties, 13.6% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

Q1SQ1 should be read with care, as it is not where people habitually use their notebook computers, but just places that they have. For example, 18% say they use theirs when commuting, but it doesn’t mean that one in five people in the morning rush train are typing away; it’s rare (once a week or less?) that I see anyone else typing away on the train, whether it be packed or empty.
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It may seem strange to an outsider that the buzzword “Work-life balance” has become popular in Japanese industry, but with many Japanese seemingly holding colleagues more dear than their family, industry has realised that for the benefit of their employees’ mental health and well-being, promoting spending less time at work is important. With this in mind, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc looking at this very topic of work-life balance. Apparently the term was coined in the 1990s in Europe or the USA.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of January 2007 330 people employed in either the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 80.3% of the sample was male, 10.9% in their twenties, 38.2% in their thirties, 34.8% in their forties, 13.9% in their firties, and 2.1% in their sixties.

I personally hold unions mainly responsible for issues regarding work-life balance. A recent survey from the union I have to join (well, technically I need not, but I think I’m not eligible for any overtime or flexible working hours if I did opt out) and pay 6,000 yen a month dues for (and don’t start me on how the union shop prominently sells cancer-in-a-pack to employees, not even stopping sales or turning off the fag machines for No Smoking Day) showed that overall job satisfaction was directly related to overtime hours worked, with the break-even point being 30 to 40 hours per month, if one can really describe having only half the staff dissatisfied as “break-even”. All we get from the union are messages about let’s not overwork, and pie-in-the-sky for Japan ideas like suggestions to plan all your goals at the start of the day and go home once you achieve them, and no later. If they really wanted to fix anything, they’d instruct members to work-to-rule, 40 hours overtime max per month. Oh, and the overtime figures at our office are fake anyway – there’s an extra 15 hours hidden in the counting, and they are calculated on self-reporting, not on ID card check-in and check-out at the main gate. Business trips are also recorded as 8:30 to 17:00 regardless of whether you end up getting the last shinkansen home or not.

Ah yes, we have a survey to do.
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Forgive me stealing the title of a rather famous book for this latest survey from goo Ranking, which reveals a most interesting side of the Japanese psyche, one that many Westerners (including me) find difficult to comprehend. The survey is entitled ranking of unexpected traits in skillful people, suggesting what habits people would not expect to see in successful employees.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% 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.

I suspect those who are not familiar with Japanese working practices will no doubt be laughing at some of the answers, and those who have worked in Japan will find that these answers explain some reactions you’ve seen to your Western working style. I must admit to not knowing why number one is unexpected, but 2 to 5 and perhaps 6 are pretty much much what one would expect from many effective people in the West. I think number 10 implies either someone too young, or who doesn’t look like they were up until 3am the night before wired on coffee and ciggies, free from bags under their eyes and other signs of stress and overwork as much as one who is too concerned with preening.

I chose to use the male pronoun for a reason.
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The Trade Union Congress in the UK recently called for workers to be allowed some MySpace time, and one gets the impression that in the USA the ability to use company resources for personal internet access and private telephone calls is a fundamental human right, but what of Japan? A recent report from japan.internet.com on a survy conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into employee internet access management shone some light on this topic.

Demographics

On the 16th of January 2008 330 people from the JR Tokai Express Research monitor pool employed in private enterprises or other organisations as directors, senior management, personnel, or in other management or planning roles completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 75.8% were male, 4.5% in their twenties, 27.9% in their thirties, 44.2% in their forties, 19.1% in their fifties, and 4.2% in their sixties.

Our rules are actually set in place mostly by personnel or other management divisions in order to try to comply with J-SOX issues, with a bit extra from the MIS department. Many of our policies are on paper sensible (though over-stringent), but the justification they add is often laughable. My favourite is their restriction on writing to bulletin boards; apparently someone wrote over 20 messages one day to a train-spotter message board and the owner complained about being flooded with traffic… My pet hate is that Skype is forbidden, even though for people on business trips it can be the cheapest way to keep in touch with family (and the office), due to paranoia about file-sharing and flooding the local network if it becomes a hub, but both these options can be turned off. I did consider renaming notepad.exe to skype.exe or winny.exe just to put the wind up the MIS department, but I suspect they don’t have a sense of humour. Oh, and they also forbid Opera 9 due to the risk of the inbuilt BitTorrent client leaping into life and sharing the whole hard drive.

I in no way whatsoever work on the basis of if it isn’t blocked by the proxy, it’s fair game.
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I used to have athlete’s foot, but Japanese over-the-counter medicines cured it pretty promptly and it has never returned, mainly due, I suspect, to living in much more hygenic conditions since I got married! To find out about festering feet in Japan and other issues, Yahoo! Japan Value Insight conducted a survey into what is known as switch OTC medicines, which means medicines with active ingredients that have switched from being prescription only to being also sold Over The Counter.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 15th December 2007 600 members of the Yahoo! Japan Value Research online monitor panel successfully completed a survey. Exactly 50.0% were male, and 33.3% were in their thirties, 33.3% in their forties, and 33.3% in their fifties. Each age group was also split 50:50 male and female. In addition exactly 50.0% had used OTC medicines for athlete’s foot within the last six months; I presume that these users were evenly distributed by sex and age.

I better have a short disclaimer just in case: I am not a health professional, and nothing within this article should be taken as medical advice, or even as accurate information. Please consult a doctor or pharmacist before taking any medicines, even over the counter ones, in order to avoid drug interactions or other problems. Mentions of any products or links to external sites does not imply a recommendation or a vouching for the quality or even safety of the products or sites.
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I just read an article on IT Media about music sales figures for 2007, published by the RIAJ, the Recording Industry Ass. of Japan.

The total units sold (CD, DVD, VHS, vinyl, etc) for the year were down 8% compared to last year at 318.66 million disks, with revenue down 4% to 391.1 billion yen (over 3.5 billion US dollars), making an average price per disk (or tape, etc) of 1,227 yen, or just over 11 US dollars. Note that this includes both singles and albums. Why the average earnings per disk increased by 4% is not discussed.

Sales of audio-only recordings were down 10% to 266.82 million disks, with a 5% revenue drop to 333.3 billion yen. From that total CD sales were down 10% to 260.34 million disks (representing 97.5% of all sales) and revenue down 5% to 327.2 billion yen. Album sales dropped 11% to 198.65 million disks with revenue down 5% to 280.2 billion yen, making an average price per disk of 1,410 yen or almost US$13 per disk. The biggest loser was Western music, which saw a drop of 23% in unit sales, representing a 17% revenue cut.

On the other hand, music videos were up 6% to 51.85 million disks or tapes with revenue up only 2% to 57.8 billion yen, representing about a 4% drop in price per unit. From that figure, almost all the sales were of DVDs, up 6% to 51.53 million disks with revenue up 3% to 57.4 billion yen.

The sales figures for pay downloads are scheduled to be released towards the end of February.

Here’s a quicky on New Year resolutions, in particular on what qualifications Japanese would like to try to get in 2008. This survey was presented by goo Ranking.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of November 2007 1,101 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample was female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 10.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score reported is the relative number of votes each choice got, not the percentage of the sample that chose each option.

I too want to do the second choice, the Kanji Kentei! It’s surprisingly fun to study, and a good excuse to buy a Nintendo DS to help with your study. Sadly, none of the tests that I featured in an earlier article made the cut! Also note that the word kentei, 検定, is the Japanese for examination, but it also has implications of being an exam with various grades. Regarding getting English qualifications, Let’s Japan had an interesting article on the chain school market.
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