世論 What Japan Thinks

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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And using the internet is also popular in net cafes, according to these astonishing results into manga cafes from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 4th of December 2009 300 members of the Marsh online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and 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.

Interesting, although the Japanese for net cafe is basically the English term and manga cafe is the equally short manga kissa, they are often further abbreviated to necafe and… well, I’m not actually sure how to pronounce the abbreviation, but it’s either man-kiss, man-ki or man-kitsu, and I secretly hope it’s the first of the three.

Oh, and as to the difference between the two, I suspect it is more branding than any specific difference in facilities.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever used an internet cafe or a manga kissa? (Sample size=300)

Yes (to SQ1)	44.3%
No	53.7%
Don’t know what an internet cafe or manga kissa is	2.0%

The usage percentage is up two percentage points from a similar survey in May.

Q1SQ1: What sorts of things do you mainly do in internet cafes, manga kissas? (Sample size=133)

	Votes	Percentage
Read manga	103	77.4%
Use internet, computer (to SQ2)	89	66.9%
Eat, drink	38	28.6%
Watch DVD, video	21	15.8%
Sleep	18	13.5%
Read other books	17	12.8%
Play console games	8	6.0%
Take a shower	5	3.8%
Other	3	2.3%

Q1SQ2: What sorts of things do you do on computers in internet cafes, manga kissas? (Sample size=89)

	Votes	Percentage
View web sites	85	95.5%
Send, receive email	39	43.8%
Watch movies	20	22.5%
Read, write to bulletin boards	18	20.2%
Social Network Services	16	18.0%
Update my blog, web site	13	14.6%
Play online game	12	13.5%
Print out stuff	12	13.5%
Work	10	11.2%
Chat	5	5.6%
Other	0	0.0%

[part 1][part 2]

With tickets having gone on sale last week, with the usual flock of idiots punters buying tickets by the metre, let’s have a look with Macromill Inc at the 2009 Year-end Jumbo Lottery.

Demographics

Over the 10th and 11th of November 2009 1,000 members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% aged fifty or older.

Having a superstition for buying the tickets at a shop that sells a lot of them is utterly pointless, as they sell a lot of winners because a lot of people buy! I’d love to see official statistics showing that the ratio of winners to sales is similar regardless of volume, rather than that star signs nonsense from the link above.

In Q7SQ5, I’m sure I heard somewhere why people put tickets in the fridge, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was! Can anyone help me out?
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[part 1][part 2]

With tickets having gone on sale last week, with the usual flock of idiots punters buying tickets by the metre, let’s have a look with Macromill Inc at the 2009 Year-end Jumbo Lottery.

Demographics

Over the 10th and 11th of November 2009 1,000 members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% aged fifty or older.

Note that the Japanese Year-end Jumbo Lottery, and all the other major lotteries would be more accurately called raffles. There are a limited number of tickets on sale, and the draw ensures that only a certain number of winners come out, and for whatever reason they have decided that making 210 jackpots between 100 and 300 million yen is better than twenty or so yen billionaires.

In Q6, buying on average 22 tickets per person is quite stunning!
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A recent survey from iShare into going to the cinema by oneself is a bit difficult for me to interpret, especially as I feel there should have been a question on why people go to the cinema by themselves rather than with others.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 10th of November 2009 531 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.3% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

Rather appropriately, I’m translating this survey as I’m riding on a train to meet my wife who went to see two movies alone today. Although a lot of foreigners complain about the cinema being 1,800 yen a ticket, if you’re regularly paying that much you’re doing it wrong! Today, for instance, is the first of the month, so all tickets are 1,000 yen each, plus by using the ticket stub in a restaurant in the shopping mall complex we can get a free cake each, plus we have cinema mileage cards so we get both bonus points that can be exchanged for popcorn and finally a see-six-get-one-free system.

Looking at the winter films below, and tying in with yesterday’s survey, a few of them seem to be live-action versions of manga or anime.
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With one live-action version of a manga comic in cinemas right now (Kaiji) and another soon to come out (Nodame Cantabile), this recent survey from iShare into manga, anime and live action movies is quite timely.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 10th of November 2009 531 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.3% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

Not being a manga fan myself, I’m not really aware of any such activities, and even when it comes to Hollywood movies converting DC and Marvel characters to movies, I’m not familiar enough with the cartoon version to have any preconceptions shattered.
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A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at consumer games machines, the second regular look at this topic. I translated the first survey here two months ago.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of November 2009 1,084 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, and 27.9% aged fifty or older.

Every time a console survey comes up I say I’ll have to buy a Wii, and today is no exception, especially as I was recently measured up as being officially metabo, or in English a fat git, so what better way to diet than to get a Wii Fit, with the new release having advanced options tailored towards trimming the waistline.
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One of the last great acts of the ex-Prime Minister Taro Aso was to propose a palace to celebrate his favourite hobby, manga. The new government cancelled the plans, but Meiji University has proposed its own library of manga, anime and doujinshi, basically self-published manga, often based on professional works, and often rather adult-themed. To see what their rather geeky members thought, iShare conducted this survey into manga and anime sub-culture.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 28th of October 2009 456 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.3% of the sample were male, 31.8% in their twenties, 33.8% in their thirties, and 34.4% in their forties.

I thought Aso’s Anime Palace was a collosal waste, but I support to some extent the effort by Meiji University to collect together this significant sub-culture, even though most of the figurine and doujinshi gives me the willies.
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Recently, Central Research Services Inc looked at the matter of popular sports

Demographics

Between the 1st and 9th of June 2009 4,000 adult members of the public were randomly selected, and 1,244 of them, or 31.1%, agreed to answer the questionnaire in face-to-face interviews. More specific demographic information was not provided.

I don’t think there’s anything of particular note in the results below, but it’s nice to translate it and keep it as a permanent record for searchers.
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