世論 What Japan Thinks

With the Nintendo 3DS having just gone on sale in Japan featuring a Game Boy Store to get your retro-gaming hit, this seems a very appropriate time to look at a ranking survey from goo Ranking into what games people would like to see available in said store.

Demographics

Over the 20th and 21st of December 2010 1,128 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.4% of the sample were female, 11.9% in their teens, 17.2% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 23.2% in their forties, 10.0% in their fifties, and 7.4% 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 hope the translations of the titles are OK – about a third of them seemed to be Japan-only releases, but a search with Google should help you out with the details.

Never having owned a Game Boy, I cannot offer my own suggestions!
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A couple of weeks ago I published a translation of a survey into Toho Cinema’s proposed 300 yen cut to a standard admission ticket, but since then I came across a Japanese-language article telling me why it is a portent of things to come.

First, the article listed historical prices for cinema tickets, calling it cartel pricing. However, there was no adjustment for inflation, but I found a site with historical CPI data, so I’ll use January 2011 as a base.

I think that table is saying that the correction to 1,500 yen makes prices cheaper than what they were in 1970. If the price remains at 1,800 yen, the 1970 price adjusted for inflation is 576 yen, which means that current prices are within 4% of what they were in 1970 allowing for CPI; this actually destroys the author’s argument about how prices have risen drastically since 1970. However, let’s move onto the other points.

Currently, although 1,800 yen is the standard price, one day a week is Ladies’ Day, where women get in for 1,000 yen. Furthermore, over 60s get in for the same discounted price, but Toho Cinemas are talking about getting rid of Ladies’ Day and limiting the OAP discount to the over 65s. The reason for this is that at the moment over 60% of tickets sold are at 1,000 yen, just one-tenth are at the full price, and another tenth at 1,500 yen, so if this goes through it will mean eight times as many people paying more than paying less!

The final statistic provided is that in 2004 the average ticket price was around 1,200 yen, but by last year it had dropped to under 1,100 yen, according to unnamed sources in the cinema business. Although there seems to be a bit of a slippery-slope argument here, it is iinteresting food for thought!

Well, at least according to the latest survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, their 18th survey into digital terrestrial television broadcasts.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 17th of February 2011 1,089 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 16.3% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

I’d be a bit wary of the figures being representative of the whole population, as the survey is for people who have home computers; I hear that a lot of retired people are still not ready yet, and considering that there has been very little advertising for set-top boxes versus a whole new television, I’m sure there’s a lot who don’t know what to do. Personally, I think the government should give out vouchers for set-top boxes with pension payments; this can be paid for by getting rid of the “digital ambassadors” they have – six high-end stars who I’m pretty sure are getting sufficiently fat wads for their appearances.

By the way, the switch-off date is 24th of July 2011!
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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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Here’s another rather slow set of results from DIMSDRIVE Research (although, of course I’m most grateful for making the data public) into theme parks and funfairs.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 27th of May 2010 8,164 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.9% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 11.4% in their twenties, 31.6% in their thirties, 32.4% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 7.8% aged sixty or older. As a further demographic, 62.2% were married.

I personally hate roller coasters, in particular the lift part, both from the point of view of heights (I’m not terribly good with them) and the slow wind-up. The most recent one I rode was at Universal Studios Japan, which has slightly reclining seats so you are basically horizontal on the way up, and my wife (who loves them) was telling me how she found it scary when she had ridden before. Getting off these things I have terrible rubber legs but a strange feeling of relief for having survived. My worst experience was on a tea cup kind of ride (in Japan it’s called a coffee cup) which little to my knowledge beforehand tilted up to around sixty degrees, but with no seat belts, just an iron bar to brace against. At the same theme park (Expoland, now closed after a fatal accident) on another day with work colleagues one woman had to be pushed onto a kiddie-oriented haunted house-type of tunnel ride that featured not much more than a few static glow-in-the-dark bats.

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With the electronic book market beginning to heat up in Japan, this recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into electronic books and electronic book sellers found that the recent announcements from Sharp and Sony were fresh in many people’s minds.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 19th of December 2010 1,079 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I’ve never heard of the Kobo, although it seems to be Canadian rather than the seemingly Japanese name it has.

Furthermore, I of course knew about Amazon selling e-books, but I’d never heard of the rest.

Everything I hear about the Kindle sounds good, and if I did slightly more travelling (or slightly less blogging!) I’d buy one. If the Japanese ones have managed to get a lot of publishers on board, and if the price of individual volumes is cheaper than the paper versions, I’d be inclined to get one for the wife, just so we could tidy up a lot of the clutter of books!
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With only seven months to go from the date of this survey before the plug is pulled (perhaps) on analogue broadcasts, goo Research took their 17th regular look at terrestrial digital television. The survey results were published by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 16th of December 2010 1,097 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

I’m all ready now, having got my Panasonic VIERA TC-P42G25 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (Amazon affiliate link) installed two days before Christmas. The data channel is well done, and as we enter our postcode when setting up the local weather for the town appears by default. I’ll not be bothering with the AcTVila feature, however, and given this report on hacking tellies (it’s either a Panasonic or a Samsung they analysed) I’ll be keeping it offline for the foreseeable future.

Note that although analogue broadcast is supposed to finish on the 24th of July this year, I’ve heard the cable companies may be asked to continue to carry it, and today’s news said that television stations may also decide to keep broadcasting in analogue.
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With Japan too about to enter the holiday season, what better than to curl up in front of the telly and watch an American drama series from start to finish? This was the premise of a recent goo Ranking survey.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of November 2010 1,171 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were female, 11.3% in their teens, 19.1% in their twenties, 29.0% in their thirties, 23.4% in their forties, 9.6% in their fifties, and 7.6% 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.

There’s six in the list I’ve never heard of, and another eight I’ve never even seen a episode of, although I came to Japan before most of these 14 started. All I’ve seen of 24 is this:

Oh, and Merry Christmas to all my readers!
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This survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, was their regular look at keitai (mobile phone) novels, a genre of writing designed to be read on a mobile phone, and often written on them too. Common features include short sentences, paragraphs and chapters, and a casual writing style featuring emoticons and graphical emoji icons. This is the 7th time this approximately bi-monthly survey has been conducted; the sixth survey translation is here for reference.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 30th of November 2010 1,087 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

Unfortunately, the article just notes the halt in the rise of smartphone readers of keitai novels without any analysis. I don’t really have any insights either, so any conjecture would be a pure guess, so I’ll refrain from making one.
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A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at electronic books.

Demographics

Between the 26th of October and the 1st of November 2010 1,097 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

Manga comics are probably ideally suited to being digitised – with them only taking an hour or two to read, the amount of effort required to buy and store electronic versions is far less than that for paper versions, I would imagine.
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