This may seem a bit of a strange subject to handle on Christmas Day, but the 25th of the month is payday, and the last payday of the year includes a 源泉徴収表, gensenchoushuuhyou, or end of the year statement of earnings and tax paid (or a P60 for British people in the audience), which is an excuse for a slightly bumpy seque into a survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into final income tax returns, or 確定申告, kakutei shinkoku.
Demographics
On the 11th of December 2007 330 self-employed members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 66.4% were male, 6.4% in their twenties, 31.5% in their thirties, 40.6% in their forties, 16.4% in their fifties, and 5.2% in their sixties. You may have noticed that when JR Tokai Express Research has a survey with people drawn from employees in the public and private sector the male percentage is over 80%. It might be interesting to find out why there is a higher ratio of self-employed women in their monitor panel.
I don’t know if many foreigners are aware of it, but if you spend over 100,000 yen or so (sorry, I don’t have the exact figures!) over the last calendar year on medical bills, including doctors’ fees, prescription medicines and traveling expenses you can claim back tax on the extra money. There are of course exceptions like gold teeth, ningen dock (full preventitive checks taking from half a day to two days) and quackery, but it’s always worth saving your receipts just in case. Read the rest of this entry »
On the 4th of December 2007 330 people from the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employen in the public sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.0% of the sample was male, 3.9% were in their twenties, 42.7% in their thirties, 43.9% in their forties, 7.9% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.
With the Winter bonus season upon us (I get mine tomorrow!) here is a timely survey from MacroMill Inc on this very subject, the Winter 2007 bonus.
Demographics
Over the 14th and 15th of November 2007 1,032 members of the MacroMill internet monitor group employed in either the public or private sector successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 20.0% of the sample were in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties. The sex ratio was not reported, however, although when JR Tokai Express Research use a similar sample base, over 80% are male. However, MacroMill tends to use a 50:50 split for their surveys, but this cannot be the case here as in Q4B, for instance, 534 men report getting a bonus, over half the sample size.
Half of my winter bonus has to go to paying my home loan, and the majority of the remained will end up replenishing funds in the bank to be spent on just normal living expenses, sadly. If I manage to get any discretionary spending, I think a DS and a Wii plus Wii Fit (saw it on the telly this morning – it looks great!) will be in order. Read the rest of this entry »
This week’s Silly Sunday is on silly rules and customs in the office, another ranking survey from goo Ranking. The fieldwork was conducted over the 24th and 25th of October 2007, but no demographic information was given, nor was there a breakdown by sex, sadly.
At my workplace, I wish they’d quit doing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 15, and 27.
For those of you who haven’t worked in Japan, perhaps a few of these options need to be explained. Number 6 and number 9 usually feature together (we actually have lunchtime meetings at my workplace); everyone gathers together, one person (rotated every day) reads the company precepts, then everyone repeats after him or her. Next, the person whose turn it is tells a story perhaps related to work, perhaps not. Other companies may also have pep talks from the boss. Actually, I do think that morning meetings are to some degree useful; ours are relatively painless, barring the company motto reading, of course, and the singing of the company song, which thankfully is not compulsory!
Number 12 is interesting – every Friday after lunch we have to vacuum the office and empty the rubbish bins. I did once ask why we did that but all I got in reply was a blank state wondering why I would question such a thing. Indeed, we even had a suggestion from someone as part of our company-wide stinginess initiative that we should also clean the corridors to save paying cleaners’ wages, an idea demonstrating blissful unawareness of the hourly rate of a cleaner versus that of an engineer.
Oh, and you don’t want to get me started on the complexity of my employer’s internal systems… Read the rest of this entry »
I just spotted this quickie survey today and it suited my mood, so following up on a survey a few weeks ago on bad habits of spouses, here’s a look at bad habits in the office, courtesy of goo Ranking. The fieldwork for this survey was conducted between the 25th and 27th of September 2007.
My top three pet hates would be sniffing and slurping (both acceptable Japanese habits) followed by just too much chat, but since most of them are going to be in the office for 12 hours per day or so, idle chit-chat shouted across the desks helps pass the time, but still it GETS ME VERY IRRITATED!
A purely hypothetical situation, of course, but if the rest of your colleagues are sitting and standing around talking in loud voices and laughing, is writing blog posts no worse than taking part in the conversation yourself?
By the way, does anyone know about any experiments with cubicles or even private offices to see how they affect Japanese productivity? However, without changing the underlying culture, I can only see separate spaces being counterproductive. Read the rest of this entry »
With prices of many staples having risen or threatening to rise for the first time for a good number of years, Macromill Inc decided to investigate what the average consumer thought about instant ramen and other instant noodles.
Demographics
Over the 10th and 11th of October 2007 516 members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female in each age group, with 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% in the fifties.
As there are no particularly good statistics to graph from this half of the survey, instead here’s a video of the Nissen Cup Noodle advertisements, done in an anime style with music by Hikari Utada:
With prices of many staples having risen or threatening to rise for the first time for a good number of years, Macromill Inc decided to investigate what the average consumer thought about instant ramen and other instant noodles.
Demographics
Over the 10th and 11th of October 2007 516 members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female in each age group, with 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% in the fifties.
I think I’ve only ever once or twice eaten instant noodles in Japan; most of them are loaded with prawns, beef, salt and MSG, so I stay well clear of them! Looking at Q1, the one type I do recall eating was some sort of low calorie concoction that doesn’t feature on the list. However, it seems that most families do use them regularly, and always hold a few in stock for emergencies or days when they just can’t be bothered cooking.
If you want to find out how Cup Noodles are made, you can visit the Momofuku Ando Museum situated in Ikeda near Osaka and even make your own personalised unique ramen! Read the rest of this entry »
One of the strong images, or is it a stereotype, of Japanese businessmen, and one of the first points of etiquette many foreigners learn before coming to Japan, is the exchanging of business cards. To find out the truth behind this image, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into business card management tools.
Demographics
On the 23th of October 2007 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in either the private or public sectors successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 82.2% of the sample was male, 11.8% were in their twenties, 42.0% in their thirties, 35.6% in their forties, 8.5% in their fifties, and 2.1% in their sixties.
This is one case where the makeup of the JR Tokai Express monitor pool may bias the results. As one of their main recruiting grounds is people riding the shinkansen, and replying to questionnaires awards points that can be exchanged for discounts on shinkansen tickets, they do attract frequent business travellers, and these travellers may be more likely to be sales people, thus more prone to be in situations where exchanging business cards is required. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into browser start pages, in particular in this article, on settings on work computers.
Demographics
One the 16th of October 2007 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group who were employed in the private or public sectors completed a private online questionnaire. 83.1% were male, 10.6% in their twenties, 42.0% in their thirties, 33.8% in their forties, 11.8% in their fifties, and 1.8% in their sixties.
The official word is that my employers’ intranet works best with Internet Explorer, although I suspect that is code for “we can’t be bothered testing it with anything else”, and best is a relative term. Anyway, regardless of that, I use Opera as my primary browser as it is easy to switch off images and embedded Flash and other objects, not that I need to do that as I of course never ever visit any non-work-related sites. Actually, Opera 9 is banned because it contains a BitTorrent client which might spontaneously start spewing company secrets, or something. My start page is set to nothing at all, with my home browser set the same way. Internet Explorer is set to point to the intranet just because that’s what I mainly use it for.
Following some feedback on an earlier post, I’ve added in hyperlinks to SQs, as I’ve had at least two people mention my use of (to SQ) was confusing. I hope they help! Read the rest of this entry »
Over the 3rd and 4th of October 2007 330 mobile phone using members of Cross Marketing’s online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 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 in fifties.
Note that in Q1 the price is for the handset only, not all the accessories too. I paid about 8,000 yen for my last one, but I got a company discount. I feel too that the basic monthly fee is quite high, although lots of discounts get applied to the price. However, due to the multiple discount schemes, separate charges for services, etc, the basic plan fee always stands out as just about the biggest number on my bills. Read the rest of this entry »
This may seem a bit of a strange subject to handle on Christmas Day, but the 25th of the month is payday, and the last payday of the year includes a 源泉徴収表, gensenchoushuuhyou, or end of the year statement of earnings and tax paid (or a P60 for British people in the audience), which is an excuse for a slightly bumpy seque into a survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into final income tax returns, or 確定申告, kakutei shinkoku.
With the Winter bonus season upon us (I get mine tomorrow!) here is a timely survey from MacroMill Inc on this very subject, the 
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One of the strong images, or is it a stereotype, of Japanese businessmen, and one of the first points of etiquette many foreigners learn before coming to Japan, is the exchanging of business cards. To find out the truth behind this image, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into 
Recently japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into 
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