世論 What Japan Thinks

As I read mostly English-language web sites and having heard stories such as 40% of US purchases being bigital, when I came across this survey from Media Interactive, reported on by japan.internet.com, into music, I was quite surprised to see the data for Japan, especially since this is an internet-based sample that would be expected to have a bias towards online shopping.

Demographics

Over the 1st and 2nd of March 2010 exactly 1,000 regular music listeners completed an internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 0.3% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, 28.9% in their forties, 16.2% in their fifties, and 8.1% in their sixties.

In Q3 I’m quite surprised that radio is grouped into the “other” category, and although streaming sites seem to be popular in the UK and the USA, they don’t get a mention here - do they in fact exist in Japan? Additionally, the number of freetards seems comparatively rather low.
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As if Japanese television wasn’t mindless enough (there are good shows, but even the good shows are cheap time-fillers), nearly half of the respondents to iShare’s survey into Twitter and television thought the two make a fun mix.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 15th of February 2010 516 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.2% of the sample were male, 30.4% in their twenties, 33.7% in their thirties, and 35.9% in their forties.

Even worse, about two in five fancied Twittering with the people on the box. I’ve seen a couple of late-night programmes that feature the people in the studio checking emails for topics, and it’s incredibly boring just watching the top of someone’s head as they mutter at a monitor trying to summarise a message.
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goo Research recently conducted their third regular survey into consumer games machines, and the report on japan.internet.com had some interesting data regarding piracy.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of January 2010 1,056 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-base questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 17.7% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.2% in the forties, and 28.0% aged fifty or older.

Previously I’ve mentioned that I felt surveys covering P2P piracy had under-reported the piracy issue, so I’m very surprised to see so large a self-reported figure here for console piracy. I’m not really too sure of the best way to interpret the difference.

It’s interesting to compare the results here with those from last November.
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With the Winter Olympics due to open on the 12th (or 13th Japan time), here’s a timely survey from iShare into the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of January 2010 497 members of the CLUb BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.8% of the sample were male, 33.2% in their twenties, 30.4% in their thirties, and 36.4% in their forties.

There’s been two interesting bits of news about Japanese athletes: first, Miho Takagi, the 15 year old speed skater with the unfortunately-designed outfit, has been mentioned on the news as much regarding her chance to be able to use English as her actual skating, then a lead story on one channel today was Kazuhiro Kokubo, the halfpipe snowboarder, getting banned from Japan’s welcoming ceremony for being sloppy-dressed at Narita airport, having - shock-horror - a loose tie and his shirt tails hanging out.

The Olympic committee have set a target of 10 medals for Vancouver, but 85% think Japan will get four or less…
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For a change, this recent survey from iShare into music downloading laws found a significant number willing to admit their thievery.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 8th of January 2010 443 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.7% of the sample were male, 30.7% were in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, and 38.6% in their forties.

As I’m not the sort of person who downloads music willy-nilly just for the sake of filling up their iPod, I’ve never downloaded more than just a dodgy track or two. I’m probably also being a fuddy-duddy by saying that the iPod and said illegal downloading just because one can is a behaviour I cannot condone in the slightest, and I’m sure in some way contributes towards the youth of today having the attention span of a goldfish. I used to play just the one CD or tape for about a week or more, but when I last had my hands on a SonyPod, I found myself filling it up with all my CDs then spending more time skipping than listening. Oh, and the software was useless and at least twice wiped its own database.

Anyway, back to the survey. This month the law has changed such that downloading illegally uploaded contents is now illegal.
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Recently goo Research looked at television in a survey reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 16th of December 2009 1,061 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I’ve just got a rather old tube-based television at home, and the wife has a One Seg mobile phone, but she only watches it once in a blue moon, especially as it doesn’t have an external aerial so even when perfectly still it’s difficult to get a signal, and it’s almost unwatchable on the train.

Built-in televisions in bathrooms are a great gimmick that I could be persuaded to go for, even though my eyesight’s so bad I don’t think I could see anything if we were to get one!

Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, yes, Japanese televisions are measured in inches.
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With Avatar in 3D in the cinemas and doing rather well, and a big push from television makers towards getting 3D into the living room, I’m surprised that it’s taken quite this long for a survey on 3D to appear.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 7th of December 2009 541 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.6% of the sample were male, 35.1% in their twenties, 28.75 in their thirties, and 36.2% in their forties.

I went to see Up (or “Old Man Carl’s House Flies in the Sky”, as it was rendered in Japanese) in 3D and the glasses were rather uncomfortable, and I had to spend periods of time holding them away from the bridge of my nose as they hurt. I also failed to appreciate any 3D whatsoever, except for background blurring in one or two scenes. I later went to see Avatar in 2D as I didn’t fancy another two and half hours of the specs.
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Not being a member of the biggest SNS in Japan, mixi appli (ie applets), the subject of this survey from goo research and reported on by japan.internet.com, are a total unknown to me, but they appear to be widgets that one can decorate one’s mixi page with.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 25th of December 2009 1,085 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I cannot really say much about mixi appli, although Asiajin has an article on it, and there’s an interesting story behind Facebook games and their business model. I don’t know how the monetising of mixi appli compares to that though.
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As part of goo Research’s 12th regular survey into terrestrial digital television broadcasts, reported on by japan.internet.com, people’s upgrade plans were revealed, and the cheapest option of a separate tuner box had very few takers.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 15th of December 2009 1,062 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

My parents in law need to be upgraded at, no doubt, my expense, so they’ll be getting the cheapest option, the tuner box, assuming we can find one! Last month they had NTT round trying to sell them either ADSL or fibre plus IPTV (they weren’t very sure either) but at about 5,000 yen per month it didn’t take much for us to persuade them it was an utter waste!

We’ve a digital-ready DVD and hard disk recorder, but I wonder if I might also buy a tuner box as the recorder takes too long to power up. But if we do that, we then have to worry about remote control overload…

Chidejika terrestrial digital television promotion mascot character bento lunch box from works & technica.
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It’s coming up to the New Year, and one of the traditional television events is NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen, or the Red and White Song Contest, where a team of male singers and male-fronted groups compete against the female side in an excuse to highlight the popular music of the year, both pops and the traditional Enka form. There’s usually about twenty to thirty acts per side and the whole affair starts around 7 pm and continues until just before midnight. However, this year the satellite channel BS11 is showing the Anison Kohaku 2009, Red and White Animation Song 2009 at the same time, so iShare decided to conduct a survey into New Year song contest viewing plans.

Demographics

Between the 27th of November and the 2nd of December 2009 515 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.4% of the sample were male, 31.5% in their twenties, 33.0% in their thirties, and 35.5% in their forties.

I’ll probably end up watching about half of NHK’s Kohaku. One interesting feature this year is the appearance of Yutaka Oe, a young Enka singer infatuated with the legendary Saburo Kitajima, and who got his break through Sanma’s Karakuri Television, where he often appears bumbling his way through his singing career. One line I remember was when he got taken out for dinner with people from his record label; they went to a Chinese and were served a whole roast chicken, whereupon he asked the waiter in all innocence if it was a small dog.

I can compare his career to Susan Boyle’s, as there was a lot of talk in her case that she had some form of learning difficulty and there has been many feeling she has been exploited. However, in Yutaka Oe’s case, when he was a child he was involved in a traffic accident, suffered brain damage and missed much of his schooling, yet even his illiteracy has been the butt of jokes.

Here’s a YouTube video of him in action, but as embedding is disabled, please follow this link.

He’s throwing the opening ball at a baseball match, but he wore his right-handed glove instead of his left, which explains his first pitch..
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