世論 What Japan Thinks

Although this survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into cosmetics shopping sites has as the survey base women who are already online, discovering that the majority of them who have shopped for cosmetics in the last year have does it at least once online in that period.

Demographics

On the 22nd of June 2009 300 female members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 24.3% of the sample were in their twenties, 38.0% in their thirties, 24.3% in their forties, 10.0% in their fifties, and 3.3% in their sixties.

I don’t think my wife’s bought online, except for a tester kit that cost a bit of money for delivery. She’s won quite a bit, though, including one that came with a Christian book that seemed to be part of a vaguely pyramid-shaped affiliate scheme…
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With a great deal of fuss regarding privacy in Japan related to Google’s Street View, resulting in them promising to reshoot everything but from a lower camera angle, this recent survey from iShare into Google Street View found that virtual walkthroughs of theme parks was a popular feature that should be expanded.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 25th of May 2009 569 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.2% of the sample were male, 35.7% were in their twenties, 29.7% in their thirties, and 34.6% in their forties.

In May of this year Google announced a Street View Partner Program to allow private facilities such as theme parks and other tourist attractions to invite the Google Trike to pedal through the location. In Japan, Kyoto’s Kodaiji temple and Asahigawa Zoo in Hokkaido were among the first locations to sign up.

It was not reported in detail, but the most popular places people wanted to see photographed were Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan.
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Here is the latest set of results from goo Research’s regular monthly survey into internet advertising, their sixth in the series, reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 28th of May 2009 1,089 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, and 27.9% aged fifty or older.

I was disappointed to see (but not surprised looking at my revenue!) that links such as me urging you to buy crappy keitai straps from Japan don’t seem to find much favour with Japanese, but email newsletters being even further down the pecking order seemed a surprise, and I’m not really sure why contextual ads come dead last.
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Here’s a topic that makes me purr with satisfaction, a recent survey from iShare into pet blogs which found that blogging cats were much more popular than dogs.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 19th of May 2009 565 mobile phone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 35.0% in their twenties, 31.7% in their thirties, and 33.3% in their forties.

I don’t read any pet blogs myself, but my wife keeps a regular watch on Nyanny Cat Cafe, some person with a cocker spaniel whose blog isn’t really interesting enough for me to look for to provide a link, and a vegan Japanese ex-resident of Edinburgh dog-owning woman.

I (well, my wife used my name) also recently won a cat photo book. In Q3, the “other” category would include alpaca, as there is a bit of an alpaca fad doing the rounds these days.
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Although recently I’ve translated a number of surveys that promised more than they delivered, this time I feel this one, the fourth survey by MyVoice into blogging has a number of interesting revelations.

Demographics

Over the first five days of May 2009 14,823 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 35% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 19% aged fifty or older.

In Q4, it’s interesting that politics isn’t a selectable theme, but given that just 5% blogged about news in general, I wonder how small that would have been.

Regarding Q5, in Japan they are called blog parts, but in the West they are usually widgets or scriptlets. Looking through the above-linked web site I came across this entertaining one:

For Q6, I’ve been to a cake-related blogger event! I’ve also sadly had to turn down two invites to Danny Choo-organised and corporately-sponsored Tokyo CGM Night, although I did see his Dad’s shoe shop right beside the free cake venue, if that counts for anything.

For Q7, I’d have to immodestly answer “somewhere to use my knowledge, information to contribute to society”, although I do have a letting off steam blog hiding in the shadows… What is blogging to you?
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This is one of these surveys that might be interesting to see in its entirity, as the taster provided by japan.internet.com of a survey by Marsh Inc into web site viewing habits provided information that without context is difficult to interpret.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 8th of May 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 0.7% were in their teens, 19.3% 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.

My wife has about three million bookmarks which make the lethargic at the best of times Internet Explorer really crawl whenever she opens up a new window. I keep my bookmarks reasonably-well categorised into folders, but then again there’s only about a dozen or so sites I regularly visit via bookmarks.
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Recently goo Research conducted a survey into mobile phone users use of computers, with this report from japan.internet.com concentrating on email newsletters, or “Mail Magazines” as they are known as in Japanese English. This was the sixth time they’ve conducted this regular monthly survey, but the first time I’ve translated any from the series.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 13th of May 2009 1,066 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. 55.9% of the sample were female, 2.7% were in their teens, 26.7% in their twenties, 40.4% in their thirties, 24.2% in their forties, and 5.9% aged fifty or older.

Looking at the results, and trying to remember when I applied to be a goo Monitor, I believe that you must first apply to be a computer-based monitor, then add your mobile phone email account, so everyone in the survey should have access to a computer.

I get just the one newsletter on my mobile phone, which I really should cancel (in fact, I’ve just cancelled right now), but get too many on my PC, including one from DHC (a cosmetics company) thanks to my wife signing up with my address, who send me a mail every day, but although they include an unsubscribe link, you have to log into your account to confirm it, but my wife’s forgotton the password.
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MyVoice recently conducted a survey into online shopping usage, the sixth time they have looked at this topic. The results of this survey are very relevant to anyone trying to sell stuff in the Japanese market.

Demographics

Over the first five days of April 2009 15,665 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% int heir teens, 15% in their twenties, 35% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

The numbers below are much higher than I would have expected! It’s a surprise to me that books are the top item bought – there’s very little discounting on Amazon Japan and there’s no shortage of physical book stores so I feel the online benefit is marginal in Japan, but obviously my gut feeling is wrong.

In Q2SQ4, I’m surprised they didn’t have a specific answer for a text link through a blog, as when I buy stuff it’s usually after a search for reviews then an affiliate click-through from a blog.
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One very useful number came out of this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet advertising, their fifth regular survey on this subject, how often advertisements in search results catch people’s eyes. You may use the third regular survey as a cross-reference.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 23rd of April 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.1% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.7% aged fifty or older.

I think Q1SQ2 is a bit of a confusing result – only 14.8% of adverisement clickers have purchased items, but not all advertisements are selling things, and even advertisements that are are often not directly selling.

I never see search ads, and it’s blocked over 400,000 advertisements in the nine months I’ve had it.
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Manga kissa is an abbreviation of manga kissaten, or in English comic cafe, the term I will use from now on. They can be found all over Japan, but I have yet to enter one as I have an image of them being very smokey. However, nearly half of all Japanese have been in one, according to this recent survey by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com on the subject of comic cafes.

Demographics

Over the 27th and 28th of April 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 50.0% of the respondents were female, 0.3% in their teens, 19.7% 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. Don’t ask me why one teenager sneaked in to disrupt the even split!

Searching around I found an interesting concept in comic cafes, Manboo, which, as the name intentionally or unintentionally suggests, appears to be a female-oriented cafe with a suspiciously Yahoo!-like logo yet has Yahoo! search embedded on its home page. I’m confused…
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