世論 What Japan Thinks

A recently reported-on survey by DIMSDRIVE Research looked at a food that has been all too common in the disaster-struck areas, the humble onigiri, or rice ball, a food that is just what it says, with the usual configuration being a ball (or more usually a triangle) of rice with some ingredient in the centre and wrapped in nori, a sheet of dried seaweed.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 18th of November 2010 12,195 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.9% of the sample were male, 0.7% in their teens, 8.0% in their twenties, 26.0% in their thirties, 32.9% in their forties, 19.9% in their fifties, and 12.5% aged sixty or older. Furthermore, 65.0% were married, 14.5% lived by themselves, 25.9% with one other, 25.2% with two others, 22.4% with three others, and 12.0% with four or more others.

I’m no fan, as the idea of cold rice does not appeal to me in the slightest, and I cannot handle the texture of nori.

Here’s a random picture from nadja.robot on flickr of rice balls:

And Lady Gaga looks like a rice ball.
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I remember a promise of a single Osaifu Keitai electronic wallet on one’s mobile phone replacing a physical walletful of point cards, and judging from this survey by iShare into usage of point services it is a desperately-needed service.

Demographics

Between th 1st and 3rd of March 2011 1,108 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.2% of the sample were male, 18.6% in their twenties, 35.8% in their thirties, and 45.6% in their forties. All those questioned were pre-screened to select only those who had points saved up.

Having said that a unified electronic card service would be desirable from the consumer point of view, of course the corporate view is that the more people losing track of them the better. There are some moves towards unification, with T-Point and Ponta Point both setting up a network of companies, but what’s resulted is basically two parallel systems, with competitors in each industry choosing one side or another. Furthermore, it is only large chains that can afford to join, so small shops still stick with stamp cards or other isolated systems.

As for internet-based points, I have a good few but they’ve all got just a few hundred points each but with nothing available to change them for, so I have let more than a few expire. I also have about a quarter of a million air miles I should use one day before they expire too…
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iShare recently took a look at drivers’ first road accident, and found that almost half of all license holders are still to have their first.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 28th of February 2011 641 members of the CLUB BQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.9% of the sample were male, 28.4% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, and 39.0% in their forties.

The figure of almost half the drivers having never had an accident may be high in part due to a lot of “paper drivers”, the name for people with driving licenses but who never actually drive. Although I got a parking ticket last year I’ve never had an accident in my time in Japan, but that’s mainly due to only driving about four or five times a year! Back in the UK my first accident was scraping the side of the car against a post as I was parking, a feat I repeated a mere month later.
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Home use water coolers, or water servers as they are known in Japan, directly importing a less-popular English term for them into Japanese, were the subject of a recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 25th of January 2011 a massive 89,713 people completed a public internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 10.7% in their twenties, 29.3% in their thirties, 31.5% in their forties, 19.4% in their fifties, and 9.1% aged sixty or older. From that group 50 people with each of the top ten brands of water server were chosen to answer further questions between the 25th and 27th of January 2011. This sub-sample consisted of 60.4% male, 13.0% in their twenties, 30.0% in their thirties, 27.2% in their forties, 21.4% in their fifties, and 8.4% aged sixty or older.

I’ve not seen a home-use water cooler in Japan, although looking at the web sites linked in Q1SQ below, they all look just the same as office-use ones. Also, given the average Japanese home size, it would be difficult to find a place for one in many homes, I suspect.

Looking at two of the web sites for prices, I see that the water works out at around 100 yen per litre, which is if anything slightly more expensive than standard two-litre bottles of water from a supermarket, and definitely dearer than buying mineral water by the case, then of course there is the rental on top of that.

Anyway, I have a built-in water purifier which is good enough, and on hot summer days I just put a jug of it into the fridge.
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goo Research recently took a look at online language study services. The results of this survey were reported by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 5th of February 2011 1,088 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.8% in their teens, 17.5% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I must at this point mention my online pal Koichi at Tofugu and TextFugu, where he runs a Japanese-language study course. It’s not free, and although I’ve never used it it does seem to be very highly rated, and he even offers a 110% moneyback guarantee!
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After skipping a day yesterday (I had the runs from a white chocolate overdose, if you must know!) here we go with the third of three mini-surveys; this time it is iShare looking at what not to put on your rice.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of January 2011 413 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 31.0% in their twenties, 31.5% in their thirties, and 37.5% in their forties.

Although this is a single answer survey, a favourite rice warning for foreigners in Japan, not to put soy sauce on top, gets a big fat zero, and I’m glad to see that over a third are relaxed enough not to be bothered.

Here’s a disgusting rice topping from The Infatuated on flickr:

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iShare published the third part of their hayfever surveys for 2011; this repeated most of the results from the second survey, however, so there is only one new answer to report today.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 20th of December 2010 2,766 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.6% of the sample were male, 14.6% in their twenties, 37.3% in their thirties, and 48.1% in their forties.

I didn’t have a clue about the measure, but it would have been interesting to see how many of the people from Q2 who reported mild hayfever were actually moderate.
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At least according on this recent survey from iShare into hayfever, their second survey this season; actually, this survey is the second half of the first one, as the demographics and survey dates are identical.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 20th of December 2010 2,766 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.6% of the sample were male, 14.6% in their twenties, 37.3% in their thirties, and 48.1% in their forties.

The last two seasons towards the end of April things have got too much for me and I’ve had to resort to visiting a local ENT clinic. The anti-histamines always knock me out, so I ask not to get the prescribed, but the other two I get to turn off the taps work well and get me through the last few weeks of the season.
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Here’s a little bit of a silly spacefiller from iShare, looking at hayfever, a survey that seems to be the first in a series, but how often they will be carrying it out, it doesn’t say, but given that the survey was conducted in December, I hope they have a monthly report.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 20th of December 2010 2,766 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.6% of the sample were male, 14.6% in their twenties, 37.3% in their thirties, and 48.1% in their forties.

This year (actually, it seems to be every year we get a similar prediction) the ceder pollen, the most common one for causing allergies in Japan, is supposed to be five times the average. It took me about five years to get hayfever in Japan – I also have rapeseed allergy, but there’s none in Japan – but on the positive side, I used to have awful mosquito allergy and would get huge swollen arms, but that’s gone away. On the other hand, it could have been a bedbug allergy as it went away as soon as I got married…
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I haven’t had a look at this subject for a while, so it was good to get some fresh data on home computer operating systems.

Demographics

Over the 14th and 15th of January 2011 1,099 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I’m on Windows XP on my netbook and Vista on my desktop, but too stingy to splash out for the full upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate that I need in order to run multiple language versions side-by-side. I must be one of the few people reasonably satisfied with Vista over XP, however, at least once I got it all configured correctly.
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