世論 What Japan Thinks

I don’t know if it’s all part of the mood of self-restraint or economising since the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake Disaster, but the two main survey sources I use have been printing shorter than usual surveys, which means I’m seeing an economic effect of the recent earthquake, which was also the subject of a recent survey by iShare.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 11th of April 2011 761 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service employed either full-time or part-time or self-employed completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.1% of the sample were male, 2.1% were in their twenties, 45.5% were in their thirties, and 52.4% in their forties. Due to iShare making an error in reporting the male-female ratio, I can deduce that the original sample was 922 people, so 161 people, or 17.5% of the original sample were either unemployed, in casual work, or full-time homemakers.

I’m very surprised that only the minority have seen adverse effects, as it seems that almost all businesses are being affected to some extent by the mood of self-restraint, or even just simply breaks in the supply chain due to upstream or downstream companies being directly affected by the earthquake or tsunami.

However, my own workplace has had no direct adverse effects, but I suppose working in research and development we don’t have any real customers.
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Unfortunately, the reports on japan.internet.com of surveys from goo Research recently took a turn for the worse with only one, not three, data sets being reported in detail. However, I will keep using them, but there will be more text and less tables. The first of these abbreviated surveys is on Twitter, with the focus being on getting information with, I suspect, the recent Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster being prominent in people’s minds when answering.

Demographics

Betweem the 12th and 18th of April 2011 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties. 15.9% in their forties, 15.2% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

I didn’t use Twitter to get any information, but I’m glad that not too many people seemed to have found information such as that from the French embassy useful.
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With the earthquake having knocked out a lot of power generation in the Tokyo area, one of the methods being mooted for saving electricity is to increase telecommuting, the topic of a recent survey by iShare.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 11th of April 2011 670 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 60.6% of the sample were male, 2.4% were in their twenties, 46.7% in their thirties, and 50.9% in their forties. All of the sample were employed and worked outside the home.

At work we have a telecommute environment complete with a quite frankly horrendous email client and a remote meeting application that I’ve never used. However, this environment can only be accessed via work notebook computers, but even though we have a draconian set of information security rules I think almost everyone else in the office works around them; I try to avoid working at home, so put no effort into making an easier environment for myself.

Regarding telecommuting and saving power – my employer too will be promoting it this summer, despite being outside the affected areas, and of course everyone in the office noticed that the additional load from a home air conditioner is more than that saved by one less body in the office and one less body in the trains. We’re forbidden from working in a coffee shop, so we can’t even borrow someone else’s cool air for work…
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goo Research recently published the highlights of a survey they performed in conjunction with President magazine (hmm, I could very well buy that issue!) into the English-language ability of professional people.

Demographics

Detailed demographics were not given, but the sample consisted of 1,031 members of the goo Research online monitor group who were not necessarily readers of President. The sample was also limited to those between the ages of 30 and 59 who had not lived overseas but had taken a TOEIC exam. Note that a TOEIC score of 470 corresponds to reasonable ability with conversation and 730 to the beginning of decent proficiency in English.

It’s a bit difficult to draw many conclusions from this survey as having to use English in the workplace is going to naturally improve your English level, and with a number of companies having regulations that require a certain level of English to get promotion, and in an international business the higher-ups are going to have to need English to negotiate, so I think this survey is illustrating correlation, not causation.
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goo Research recently performed their 14th regular survey into internet advertising; this is their first reported survey since the earthquake, and it was noted that people living in certain of the affected areas were excluded from the survey.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 24th of March 2011 1,077 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 17.1% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 20.9% in their thirties, 17.0% in their forties, and 26.6% aged fifty or older.

Despite Google constantly updating their AdSense system to make it more attractive for clickers, and despite my traffic steadily rising, but allowing for the yen depreciation, for the last three years my income has remained sadly flat. I do have contextual adverts in my custom search, but I think most of the people searching my site fall into the “almost never look at them” demographic!
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I remember a promise of a single Osaifu Keitai electronic wallet on one’s mobile phone replacing a physical walletful of point cards, and judging from this survey by iShare into usage of point services it is a desperately-needed service.

Demographics

Between th 1st and 3rd of March 2011 1,108 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.2% of the sample were male, 18.6% in their twenties, 35.8% in their thirties, and 45.6% in their forties. All those questioned were pre-screened to select only those who had points saved up.

Having said that a unified electronic card service would be desirable from the consumer point of view, of course the corporate view is that the more people losing track of them the better. There are some moves towards unification, with T-Point and Ponta Point both setting up a network of companies, but what’s resulted is basically two parallel systems, with competitors in each industry choosing one side or another. Furthermore, it is only large chains that can afford to join, so small shops still stick with stamp cards or other isolated systems.

As for internet-based points, I have a good few but they’ve all got just a few hundred points each but with nothing available to change them for, so I have let more than a few expire. I also have about a quarter of a million air miles I should use one day before they expire too…
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Home use water coolers, or water servers as they are known in Japan, directly importing a less-popular English term for them into Japanese, were the subject of a recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 25th of January 2011 a massive 89,713 people completed a public internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 10.7% in their twenties, 29.3% in their thirties, 31.5% in their forties, 19.4% in their fifties, and 9.1% aged sixty or older. From that group 50 people with each of the top ten brands of water server were chosen to answer further questions between the 25th and 27th of January 2011. This sub-sample consisted of 60.4% male, 13.0% in their twenties, 30.0% in their thirties, 27.2% in their forties, 21.4% in their fifties, and 8.4% aged sixty or older.

I’ve not seen a home-use water cooler in Japan, although looking at the web sites linked in Q1SQ below, they all look just the same as office-use ones. Also, given the average Japanese home size, it would be difficult to find a place for one in many homes, I suspect.

Looking at two of the web sites for prices, I see that the water works out at around 100 yen per litre, which is if anything slightly more expensive than standard two-litre bottles of water from a supermarket, and definitely dearer than buying mineral water by the case, then of course there is the rental on top of that.

Anyway, I have a built-in water purifier which is good enough, and on hot summer days I just put a jug of it into the fridge.
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The company MMRI in conjuction with goo Research recently released the results of their third ranking consumer awareness survey into corporations with the image of commitment to environmental measures.

Demographics

Between the 28th of January and 1st of February 2011 1,094 members of the goo Research oonline monitor group completd a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were female, 20.1% between 18 and 29 years old, 20.1% in their thirties, 19.7% in their forties, 19.9% in their fifties, and 20.1% aged sixty or older.

Note that this survey is more a measure of how well companies are projecting their green image, not of how well they are actually enacting policy; my employer features high on the list and … no, I’d better not say!

You’ll notice Japan Tobacco in 11th place overall, which might seem strange, but JT are very clever with their advertising and have persuaded the average person on the street that being downwind of a smoke cloud, accidentally poking kids with ciggies on busy roads, and chucking butts down the drain are the most serious hazards of smoking, thus their awareness campaign plays on the greenness of not doing the above. Japan must be just about the only country in the world where more local governments have enacted measures against smoking on busy streets versus the much more unhealthy aspect of smoking in enclosed spaces.

Finally, note that in the second ranking Apple makes an appearance as the only foreign company in either list.
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This recent survey from goo Research, in conjuction with social media consultants Looops Communications, took a look at corporate social media use, a follow-up to a July survey into the same topic.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 15th of November 2010 480 members of the goo Research online monitor group who used a corporate Twitter account as part of their job completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Sex and age demographics were not reported as they were not particularly significant; instead company size was reported. 34.2% worked in companies of under 10 employees, 20.8% between 10 and 99 employees, 26.9% between 100 and 999 employees, and 18.1% with 1,000 or more employees. Furthermore, 64.0% were consumer-oriented companies (B2C), 23.5% public or private-sector oriented (B2B), and 12.5% were both B2C and B2B.

My employer just recently got ranked in the top ten social media-using corporations in Japan according to Agile Media Networks. The results first Coca-Cola, second Suntory, third Sega, fourth Panasonic, fifth Lawson’s, sixth Ajinomoto, seventh Nike, eighth Sony, ninth Universal Studios Japan, and tenth Unilever. Surprisingly, Uniqlo were not in the top fifty. Perhaps I should translate that result soon?
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With one of the biggest cinema chains in Japan, Toho Cinemas, announcing that from next month (March 2011) they will cut the price of an adult ticket from 1,800 yen to 1,500 yen, iShare decided it would be a good time to conduct a survey to see what people thought about multiplex ticket prices.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of January 2011 a mere 284 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.5% of the sample were female, 32.0% in their twenties, 32.4% in their thirties, and 35.6% in their forties. All had watched a movie at a multi-screen theatre, although it would have been useful to see the percentage of people who had been to the cinema.

As I always say, if you’re regularly paying 1,800 yen for the cinema you’d doing it wrong! The first of the month is 1,000 yen, Toho Cinemas have a loyalty card that gives you one free for every six watched, late shows are 1,200 yen or so, advance tickets are usually 1,300 yen, and ticket shops around cinemas often have left-over advance tickets on sale or other discount passes.

I’d like to see them do something about 3D surcharges; Toho Cinemas started off charging 300 yen extra, but last autumn they bumped it up to 400 yen. I’d watch more 3D (actually, I’ve given up now) if it was just 200 yen, or my loyalty card gave me a discount, or if I could buy my own pair.

My next movie will be The King’s Speech, and although I’d be prepared to pay full price for it, I’ll be going on March 1st, 1,000 yen day.
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