世論 What Japan Thinks

This recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc looks at the giant of the Japanese Social Networking Service market, mixi.

Demographics

On the 30th of April 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in the private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 70.6% of the sample was male, 13.0% in their twenties, 43.3% in their thirties, 33.0% in their forties, 8.8% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties. Why exactly they limited the sample to only the private sector is a bit of a mystery to me, however.

Before you ask, sorry, I don’t have any invites to mixi to give to anyone. To sign up you need a Japanese mobile phone email address, but I don’t know of anyone offering a proxy service for sign-ups, whether for free or for a small fee. Indeed, there might be a minor business opportunity there, selling sign-ups. If anyone does know of such a service, or is offering to do sign-ups for free, etc, please drop me a line and I’ll link to you.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, or check out my weekly newsletter. Thanks for visiting!

Just about the only thing in Japan that is noticably cheaper than anywhere else is broadband, with 4,000 yen per month (US$40, UK&147;20 or so) being on the expensive side for proper broadband (often 10 Mbps or more). To see how that low price is shaping the market, please study this survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet usage .

Demographics

Over the 30th of April and 1st of May 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitors completed a private internet-based questionnaire. In the sample the male:female split was exactly 50:50, 20.0% were in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 5.3% aged sixty or older.

The article also notes that the broadband market was worth just under 1.2 trillion yen in 2007, (about 12 billion US dollars), and is predicted to be nearly 1.25 trillion yen this year, and over 1.4 trillion yen by 2012.

The report also does not consider cable to be broadband!
Read the rest of this entry »

Not too surprisingly, Yahoo! comes out on top as the most frequently used news site in Japan, but there are still many interesting results in this survey from MyVoice into news sites.

Demographics

Over the first four days of April 2008 14,913 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 1% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

I am glad to see that the top complaint is the lack of information in articles; most Japanese articles are just two or three paragraphs long and as a user of Google News one finds very similar reports in different papers. Google News also reveals another problem, namely that articles often expire really quickly; even after only a few hours a lot of the links on Google News lead to error pages.

For English news on Japan, I recommend the appropriately-named News on Japan as a useful aggregator of news, although in a few months there may very well be a new challenger in this market…
Read the rest of this entry »

This is another fascinating survey with quite surprising results. The survey is from MyVoice, where they looked into the issue of email.

Demographics

Over the first five days of April 2008 14,815 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

This is interesting to see how people use their computer and mobile phone email addresses. Mobile phones are restricted to mostly communication with friends and family, whereas computer-based email does many things.

Most of the new models of mobile phones support not just display but also the creation of HTML email; that is email with inline photos and emoji, but they do tend to chew up memory space on the mobile phones. I can’t really say there are many benefits from HTML email; having said that, DecoMail is HTML email and I couldn’t live without that feature now when communicating with the wife!
Read the rest of this entry »

Email newsletter, or as they are known in Japanese English mail magazines (which is usually then abbreviated to meru-maga) are a popular way for companies to communicate with their customers and potential customers. To find out how popular, japan.internet.com reported on a recent survey conducted by goo Research into email newsletters.

Demographics

Over the 20th and 21st of January 2008 (don’t ask me why japan.internet.com took three months to report!) 1,100 members of the goo Research online monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 14.4% in their teens, 20.3% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.6% aged fifty or older.

I run a wee newsletter myself, just a weekly summary of my surveys, other interesting news, stuff about blogging, and rounded off with something interesting or strange that happened to me in the past week. If you’d like to join or check the archives, visit the 世論 What Japan Thinks Google Groups Newsletter or sign up with this form:

Subscribe to 世論 What Japan Thinks newsletter

Email:

Visit this group

Thanks!
Read the rest of this entry »

Although mixi still rules the Japan Social Networking Service market in Japan, this 12th regular SNS survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com showed some changes lower down in the rankings.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 9th of April 2008 1,091 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

As lots of people seem to be looking for invites to mixi, both xorsyst and Tofugu are offering them. Note that you seem to need a Japanese mobile phone in order to sign up.

My SNS participation is limited to my rather static personal and web site Facebook pages. I’ll respond to any friend requests, but don’t expect anything more out of me!
Read the rest of this entry »

Japan’s home-grown YouTube, the member-only Nico Nico Douga that charges for peak-time usage and doesn’t allow embedding in other web sites is still trying to catch up with the aforementioned YouTube. To see what the Japanese think of the site, JR Tokai Express performed a survey reported on by japan.internet.com into Nico Nico Douga.

Demographics

On the 8th of April 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor pool employed in either the public or the private sector completed an internet-based questionnaire. 80.0% of the sample was male, 12.1% were in their twenties, 37.6% in their thirties, 37.9% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

On the 1st of April this year Niwango Inc, the operators of Nico Nico Douga, signed an agreement with JASRAC (the Japanese Society of Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) to the effect that they would only allow users to upload videos of themselves performing copyrighted material, but not surprisingly infringing material is also still making its way onto the site.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you miss the last train home, a good tip I hear is to spend the night in an internet cafe. To see how popular that and other activities are at these places, MyVoice recently performed a survey on this very topic of internet cafes.

Demographics

Over the first five days of March 2008 14,691 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties.

Although I have never set foot in one, I have an image of internet cafes as dim and dingy places. I should really visit once just to confirm or dispel my prejudice, but as most will no doubt have a permanent fog of cigarette smoke I might not last more than a couple of minutes!

Last year one of the Words of the Year was Net Cafe Refugees, people working in casual cash-in-hand jobs by day, and dossing down in the cafe by night.
Read the rest of this entry »

Having looked in passing at English lessons in Second Life just a few days ago, this time it’s Second Life in general, with a survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research, their 6th regular Second Life survey.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 27th of March 2008 1,091 members of the goo Research online monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample was male, 16.1% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, and 28.2% aged fifty or older.

Second Life, or Sadville as The Register calls it, is an online 3D virtual world where you can do and build whatever you want, but most things inevitably end up revolving around sex of often a rather perverted nature.

I personally have never played and have no intention of doing so, not least because my poor PC isn’t up to taking the strain.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s another quickie survey today (sorry, a bit busy these days to concentrate on long translations!), again reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Marsh into the matter of e-learning.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 31st of March 2008 300 members of the Marsh internet monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. The sexes were split 50:50, and by age 20.0% were in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 13.3% in their fifties, and 6.7% aged sixty or older.

I once tried an internet site that offered Kanji Kentei training, but I didn’t really enjoy it much, and anyway now there’s Nintendo DS software for kanji practice for round about the same price as three months on the web site, why bother? Talking of the DS, looking at the results below it seems that e-learning here means internet-delivered contents, not software.
Read the rest of this entry »