世論 What Japan Thinks

In this recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into the PC Recycle Law, the vast majority who knew it well reckoned it worked to at least some degree.

Demographics

On the 6th of September 2010 1,084 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.0% in their teens, 17.5% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 16.3% in their fifties, and 12.5% aged sixty or older.

I never got any explanation about the law, nor did I see anything in the manual, when I bought my computer nor my LCD monitor, which should also be covered.

I know somone who was too stingy to pay the 4,000 yen or so to throw out an ancient LCD monitor, so instead he dismantled it and chucked it out (in the correct recycle bins, I he must add) bit by bit.
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I believe this is the first time I’ve translated a survey on this topic of fax machines, conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Over the 2nd and 3rd of September 2010 1,089 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifites, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

My fax machine is a combined fax, telephone (including wireless handset), colour scanner, photo printer, SD card reader and wireless printer which probably has another few functions hidden in the depths of its full-colour touch screen-controlled menu system! We get and send less than one fax a week, however…
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A recent survey from Media Interactive (iResearch) and reported on by japan.internet.com took a look at the matter of servers, with this particular article focusing on the virtualisation aspect. I’ll apologise in advance for the technical nature of this, but it’s something I’m interested in, and it’s one aspect of Cloud Computing, another buzzword that does the rounds a lot without many people particularly knowing what it actually means.

Demographics

On the 27th of August 2010 300 members of the Media Interactive monitor group who worked in organisations and has the power of approval for server purchases completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The respondents were between 20 and 79 years old, but no further demographic information was given.

Cloud Computing is one of these terms with different meaning for different people. My definition is using resources from a pool of resources, with the usage expanding and contracting on demand, and charging being based on the usage. On which device, or how many devices, or who else is sharing the device is unimportant, just that the resources are available somewhere.
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japan.internet.com has been a bit barren recently – I don’t know why they’ve decreased the number of surveys they publish – so this survey from goo Research is not one I would normally choose, but needs must. The topic was web cameras and headsets, but the published results were quite uninteresting.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of August 2010 1,041 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, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.0% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

I’ve got just a headset, which I only use for very occasional internet telephone calls. I did try training Windows Vista’s speech to text software using them, but some combination of the headset, the input settings, Microsoft coding and my accent meant that I couldn’t get much more than 50% accuracy, making typing a whole lot faster.
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I think the buzzword in the English speaking world is Micro Four-Thirds, but in Japan they use mirrorless to describe the new generation of SLRs that have no optical viewfinder. To find out more about them, iShare took a look at the merits and demerits of mirrorless SLRs.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 17th of August 2010 1,114 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was prescreened to select those people who had used an SLR (either digital or optical) for more than three years and were familiar with the specifications for mirrorless SLRs. All the sample were over thirty years old, and 82.9% were male.

I’d like to get a mirrorless SLR, but as my wife doesn’t even trust me with our point-and-shoot, I’m afraid I wouldn’t get much use from it. Furthermore, as they don’t have at least 12 megapixels (or if they do, they don’t make a fuss about it) she won’t be interested.
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Let’s get the What Japan Thinks show back on the road after the holidays with this look by goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into home appliances, the sixth time this regular survey has been conducted.

Demographics

Between the 28th of July and the 3rd of August 2010 1,041 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

I did buy one electrical device last month, a Brother MyMio MFC-735CD phone/fax/answering machine/printer/scanner/SD card reader/kitchen sink device (linked US version has no wireless handset, but has networking). Our old telephone’s screen suddenly went blank, so we checked out new ones in a nearby electrical store and nearly bought there, but we instead used kakaku.com to do a price check (if you’re in Japan, don’t buy anything without checking them out first!) and found Amazon just 106 yen off the cheapest, so of course with they being a big name we ordered from there. We placed the order at about 5 pm on Sunday evening, and even with just their standard free shipping it arrived the next day at about 2:30 pm!

In Q2, note that three of the top four items, digital televisions, air conditioners, and fridges, award eco points for purchase.
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With smartphones becoming more popular and certain models not having replaceable batteries yet a day of heavy usage is enough to run many of them flat, a public recharging service may become a feature of many city locations. To find out what people thought of this, iShare conducted a survey on the topic.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 16th of July 2010 460 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.5% of the sample were male, 30.4% in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, and 38.9% on their forties.

Already in Japan in many locations you’ll find mobile phone recharging lockers where for around 100 yen for 20 minutes you can get your battery topped up. Furthermore, docomo mobile phone stores also often have free recharging points, if you don’t mind putting up with being pestered by salespeople. However, mains sockets for general purpose recharging are a rarity, so this survey is looking at the first steps towards public power.
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A rather interesting survey by iShare looked at a topic that I’ve covered before, namely mobile battery recharging frequency, but with a look at a new angle, specifically what causes the battery to run down.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 28th of June 2010 462 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.3% of the sample were male, 32.9% in their twenties, 33.5% in their thirties, and 33.5% in their forties.

I recharge my phone about once every three days, but I blame that more on a two year old battery than on my occasional email habit.

It would have been nice to also see a breakdown of recharging habits against smartphones and feature phones.
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Here’s a short and perhaps less interesting than it could have been look at software keyboards, not just touch panels as on many smartphones, but also pen or even mouse-operated on-screen keyboards. The survey was conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Over the 29th and 30th of June 2010 1,065 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.1% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 20.9% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 16.2% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

Sort-of connected with this topic, on the news tonight I saw an item on the use of the iPad by seniors. There were things like a training school for older people, with almost everyone over 70 years old and the oldest 95, who said he was keen to learn how to use it. There also seems to be a mini boom in the Japanese software industry for making OAP-targeted iPad applications.
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The sixth regular survey by goo Research into mobile devices, reported on by japan.internet.com, produced evidence that compared to the fourth time the survey was conducted smartphones have got more popular.

Demographics

Between the 28th of June and the 1st of July 2010 1,090 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, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, and 27.6% aged fifty or older.

I wonder next time they do the survey if the tablet PC category will see a jump due to iPad purchasers? Furthermore, I also expect smartphones to jump due to the iPhone 4′s release, assuming there isn’t a recall.

My interest in smartphones has waned again – I’m seeing a huge number of new models coming out in the UK and US with various packages of hundreds of minutes and hundreds of megabytes of data for under 3,000 yen, yet here I pay about the same for 30 minutes or a megabyte…
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