世論 What Japan Thinks

Not discounts for mobile phones, but discount coupons accessed through mobile phones was the topic of this recent survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 13th of April 2010 800 heavy users of mobile phones completed a mobile phone-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 25.0% in their teens, 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.0% in their forties.

I’m not a heavy user of my mobile phone, so my excuse for not using them, that the packet charges are more than the savings, does not apply to the heavy users who are probably all on unlimited use. Most of my coupons come from the computer-based internet or free papers.
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A recent survey from iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at the online shopping habits of women.

Demographics

On the 5th of April 2010 300 female members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 12.3% of the sample were in their twenties, 38.0% in their thirties, 19.7% in their forties, 23.0% in their fifties, and 7.0% in their sixties.

As usual, my favourite method, PayPal, doesn’t get a mention, although I suppose Yahoo! Wallet is the closest one gets.
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With the new batch of graduates joining companies this month, here’s a look by goo Ranking at what people want to warn new starts about. In addition, more experienced pople are expected to teach them the ropes, so there’s also look by goo Ranking at what business manners people are not confident they do correctly.

Demographics

Over the 22nd and 23rd of February 2010 1,123 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.6% of the sample were female, 9.6% in their teens, 22.2% in their twenties, 32.1% in their thirties, 24.9% in their forties, 7.5% in their fifties, and 3.8% 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.

Seating order is an important topic – in a Japanese room the most senior sits opposite the door, so that when the ninja come it’s just the plebs that get chopped up. However, there’s different rules for where everyone goes depending on whether it’s a round or rectangular table. Seating order on an airplane is a new one on me, and probably a very rare occurance.
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A recent survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into online shopping failures by women found few actually complained to the shop about their problems.

Demographics

On the 23rd of March 2010 300 female members of the iBridge monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 21.3% were in their twenties, 37.0% in their thirties, 26.7% in their forties, 9.3% in their fifties, and 5.7% in their sixties.

Even though she will often complain about other things, the few times my wife has had problems with online ordering, in particular with clothes, she hasn’t bothered to do anything as she says it’s too much hassle and cost to return the items, despite her usual shop offering no questions asked refunds of unworn clothes.
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This latest survey into internet advertising, from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com, their 10th regular survey on the topic, didn’t ask (or didn’t report) the one question I want to hear the results to, whether or not people run ad blocking software.

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of March 2010 1,062 members of the goo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.8% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, and 27.2% aged fifty or older.

My wife runs the Rakuten toolbar, which gives you one Rakuten search point (I’m not sure exactly how they work) when you use the toolbar to search, but the result page that comes out has almost the whole first screen full of text adverts, often for sites that appear in the natural results the next screen down. It all seems a bit of con to me, and I should really tweak Ad Muncher so it hides them all!
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iBridge Research Plus recently conducted a survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, into the matter of free papers.

Demographics

On the 8th of March 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.0% of the sample were male, 9.0% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 32.7% in their forties, 23.0% in their fifties, and 4.3% in their sixties.

I get about two or three free papers every fortnight through my door, usually filled with just classified advertisements and restaurant and beauty information with coupons, which I always check as my favourite local restaurant usually has a 10% off offer on the go.

Just one person reads foreigner-oriented free sheets – all I can say is that I’m glad my wife did too…
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A recent survey from Marsh Inc, reported on by japan.internet.com, into online shopping found that Rakuten was the top online shop, used by over two-thirds of the online shoppers in this survey.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 5th of March 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 1.3% in their teens, 18.7% 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 know I’ve previously slagged off Rakuten as a bunch of spammers and toolbar pushers, but they do actually have good shops there, and at least it’s just my wife who has to deal with the spam! Our latest purchase was a lucky bag of organic vegetables for 777 yen delivered straight to the door. That’s about half the price that it might have been at a supermarket.
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I’m in the wrong business – I should instead by promoting fortune telling, as according to this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com a not insignificant percentage of computer users have paid real money for a reading.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 6th of March 2010 1,075 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.5% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 17.6% in their twenties, 20.7% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 16.2% in their fifties, and 12.5% aged sixty or older.

I was very tempted to insert an advertisement for some kind of paid fortune telling service, but sadly my morals overrode my wallet, although I wouldn’t be surprised if Google overrides both of them and sticks some suitable astrology adverts along with this post…
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This recent survey from iShare into overtime turned up quite a lot of data that to me as a westerner seems unbelievable, but as a worker in a Japanese firm I find it not really that unusual.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of February 2010 451 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.1% of the sample were male, 31.7% in their twenties, 32.8% in their thirties, and 35.5% in their forties.

My overtime has actually increased since last year, despite work introducing measures to reduce working hours! The people targeted were those doing 60 hours a month overtime, but as the measures replaced a nominal 18 hours overtime in the monthly salary with an explicit measure, I now do 20 hours to try to make up for the loss in salary. Despite these measures people still work far too long but just lie on their timesheets, so my employer (note, not the union!) is actively trying to get people to go home earlier.
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Well, at least two-thirds of a sample made up from internet users, according to this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet banking.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 28th of February 2010 1,080 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.8% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I’ve used my Japanese bank’s internet service exactly once! However, I do use my UK bank’s service about once a month on average.
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