世論 What Japan Thinks

iShare often make me smile with the curious topics they investigate, and this one is no exception, what secrets people want to take to the grave.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 6th of August 2010 415 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 33.7% in their twenties, 32.8% in their thirties, and 33.5% in their forties.

I’ve probably got one, no two, secrets that I’ll never mention; one is bad, the other is just embarrassing. That’s really about all I’m prepared to say regarding this survey!
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I don’t really know what to make of this recent survey from iShare into preferences for telephone call direction, but I present it anyway.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 26th of July 2010 476 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.1% of the sample were male, 29.8% in their twenties, 30.0% in their thirties, and 40.1% in their forties.

In Q2, people were asked the reasons for their answer; those who wanted to make calls said for example it was because they could call in their own free time and wanted to keep in touch. On the other hand, those who wanted to receive calls said it was because they didn’t know if the other person was free, they were happy to get called, and they were just not very good at making calls.

I hate making calls myself even in English, and I also hate getting calls in the office – I often just ignore my phone and hope someone else picks it up. If I’m the only person in the office, I just ignore the phone completely.
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iShare took a look at young people’s opinions regarding their mother’s cooking, in particular the flavour that reminds them of home. I cannot think of a British expression, but it’s the stereotypical Italian “Just like Mama used to make” that the survey is about.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 27th of July 2010 454 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 27.8% in their twenties, 36.6% in their thirties, and 35.7% in their forties.

I don’t think I have any particular taste of home – perhaps salmon is the closest, but that is more to do with the freshness of the salmon rather than the cooking per se. Just before you complain, Mum, it’s that I’m happy to get anything cooked for me rather than nothing being memorable. If we expand to cover baking, I’ve tried to reproduce her scones and pancakes but with very, very little success!
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Here’s a survey from goo Ranking that will probably hold true all over the world, I might be a Twitter addict if….

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of June 2010 1,137 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were female, 8.0% in their teens, 20.4% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, 23.9% in their forties, 9.2% in their fifties, and 7.2 aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I don’t think I suffer from any of the below. Note that Tweeting in the bath is very much possible in Japan as many phones are waterproof, or at least splashproof.
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A few months ago I remember seeing a news segment on internet-based social lending services, but I cannot say the idea appealed to me.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 26th of July 2010 1,073 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.9% of the sample were male, 15.8% were in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 20.8% in their thirties, 16.7% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

Social lending services are basically online swap services. The one I saw on the television was points-based. Lending stuff out gained you points, borrowing stuff cost you points. Much of the stuff being circulated was household goods; items seemed to spend a month with one family before moving directly on to another, and another. However, rather than being something like, say, a high-end espresso maker, most of the items seemed to be not worth much more than the postage they would cost. Brand clothes and bags seemed to be another line that I could at least understand the attraction of.
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Following on from the earlier survey into summer plans, iShare also took a look at beach fun.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 17th of June 2010 475 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.4% of the sample were male, 28.6% in their twenties, 34.3% in their thirties, and 37.1% in their forties.

I did once get invited to the beach by a nubile Japanese female, but that’s a story for another day…

I don’t want to go to the beach in Japan this summer and based on photos like this one from Yuki Naotori on flickr, I have no intention of ever going. In particular, having grown up with vast, empty, clean (barring the seaweed) sandy beaches, Japanese beaches could only be an anti-climax.

With the rainy season lifting this weekend in Japan (we’ve just had a cracker of an electrical storm to finish it off!) this survey (well, actually just a single question) from iShare looked at people’s main plan for the summer.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 22nd of June 2010 481 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.7% of the sample were male, 32.2% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

My plans for the summer are first taking the in-laws for a drive round some graveyards, then going to see an amateur play that my wife’s schoolmate is appearing in. If I had a free choice, I’d spend a week asleep…
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This very detailed piece of research into women, housework and domestic appliances by Yahoo! Japan Value Insight revealed a lot of information about what the average Japanese kitchen looks like.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 12th of June 2010 800 women aged between 20 and 39 completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 25% fell into each of the age groups 20 to 24, 25 to 29, 30 to 34 and 35 to 39. 400 of the women in the sample were in full-time work, and 400 were either full-time housewives or out of work. All of them lived within the Tokyo area; either Tokyo itself or the neighbouring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa. Finally, those living with parents, siblings or other relatives, or living with friends were eliminated, thus all the working singles would be living alone.

Although I’ve detailed the demographics above, you’ll note that the totals in the questions below don’t add up to 800, but the reason for that is unclear.

In Q4 I’m also unsure of the difference between not wasting water and not sending too much down the drain.
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Here’s an interesting look by iShare on a topic I’ve not seen covered in detail in either Japan or the English-speaking sphere, a look at personal video creation, in particular how people use them on video sharing sites like YouTube or the Japanese equivalent Nico-Nico Douga.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 21st of June 2010 533 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.2% of the sample were male, 28.9% in their twenties, 35.5% in their thirties, and 35.6% in their forties.

The vast majority of videos I watch on YouTube are cat ones. However, I recently came across this slightly NSFW series of remixes of a song about a horse, which was rather entertaining.
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One of the hobbies of Japanese kids in the summer is collecting stag beetles and their friends, so I was interested to see this recent survey from iShare looking at insects.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 7th of June 2010 482 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 29.9% in their twenties, 33.8% in their thirties, and 36.3% in their forties.

When I was a kid, a ladybird was about the only insect I could cope with, so coming to Japan and finding stuff like massive cockroaches or even the passive cicida fair gives me the willies. It’s cool to see a stick insect or praying mantis in my garden, but the only touching I’ll do is with a rolled-up newspaper. Fortunately my wife can cope, so when any good insects enter the house, she’s on hand to lift them out. Conversely, she’s petrified of wasps, but perhaps my sadistic streak comes through as I enjoy squirting them with fly spray.

Note, insects were defined for the purpose of this survey as three-segmented creatures with feelers in their head part and three pairs of legs in their chest part. Poisonous or stinging creatures like wasps were excluded.
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