世論 What Japan Thinks

Having looked last week at how people are economising in general, today I’m looking at a survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into saving money on food.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 25th of June 2009 9,685 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 1.1% in their teens, 12.3% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 7.3% aged sixty or older.

My eating at home has definitely increased the last year, and most of the saving money has been from buying pre-prepared salad from the supermarket rather than from one of the delicatessans in a department store.

In the final question, bean sprouts coming out as the most common cheap food highlights how much people are struggling. I can understand tofu, chicken and cabbage being popular substitutes for more expensive ingredients, but bean sprouts suggests desperation to me.
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This survey will perhaps go some way to solving one of the greatest mysteries to foreign visitors to these climes, namely do all Japanese do the peace sign when getting their photo taken. This is the subject that iShare addressed.

Demographics

Between the 28th of August and the 2nd of September 2009 521 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 34.0% in their twenties, 31.9% in their thirties, and 34.2% in their forties.

It’s a bit late to write a comment, so let’s just go straight to the survey! Click on the photos to go to the original on flickr.
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Here’s a subject I’ve never touched before, a survey regarding nail elegance from DIMSDRIVE Research. I found this interesting gallery of nail art if you want to see what it’s all about.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 30th of April 2009 10,667 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.6% of the sample were male, 1.0% in their teens, 12.6% in their twenties, 32.4% in their thirties, 30.9% in their forties, 16.2% in their fifties, and 6.9% aged sixty or older.

One thing I often notice in Japan are the interesting nails that some of the young ladies have, especially when their fingertips are even more tarted up than the deco-den underneath! That reminds me, there’s actually one touch-screen mobile phone (can’t remember which one!) that advertises itself as being manicured nails-friendly – I’ve heard a rumour that the iPhone isn’t terribly usable with long nails.

In the rankings of favourite colours, I’m a bit surprised that black didn’t figure.

Note that this survey looked only at fingernails, not toenails.
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A recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at people’s home computer environment. This is a topic I previously covered almost two years ago.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 14th of September 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 1.0% were in their teens, 19.0% 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.

Q2 is a bit vague in the wording, as especially for a portable machine, the room in which it is placed, which implies when not in use, and the room in which it is used may differ. I know when I take my work note PC home it sits in the study/spare room when I’m not using it, but I bring it through to the kitchen table when I want to use it. However my main desktop sits permanently at a computer desk in the study.

Which reminds me, I really should organise the area around my computer desk to be a proper homeworking setup…
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There’s no shortage of free papers around town, even though it wasn’t until 2002 that the first one appeared in Japan. These free sheets were the focus of this recent survey from iBridge Research Plus, as reported by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 14th of September 2009 300 members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.7% of the sample were female, 12.0% in their twenties, 30.3% in their thirties, 29.3% in their forties, 22.0% in their fifties, and 6.3% in their sixties.

I’m not sure exactly what that 2002 date for the launch of free papers means, as when I came to Japan in 1998 there was already three or four free weekly or monthly freesheets and magazines targetted at the foreign market; indeed I met my wife through a free paper advertisement.
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Having looked earlier at television recording habits, here’s an interesting look at what people do next from iShare, when they asked people how they consumed recorded television.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 24th of August 2009 591 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.0% of the sample were male, 35.2% in their twenties, 31.3% in their thirties, and 33.5% in their forties.

Since we got our hard disk DVD recorder the amount of recorded television has increased, but my watching has decreased! At least blank DVDs are reasonably-priced and don’t take up quite as much space as the millions of VHS tapes lying around the house…
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I must have missed the first two times this survey came around, as I see this survey from MyVoice into curry is marked as their third time of asking. I’ve previously done DIMSDRIVE on curry, however.

Demographics

Over the first five days of August 2009 13,747 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 34% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 20% aged fifty or older.

Most Japanese currys are really more like spicy stews, and as you can see from Q5, none of the top brands have Indian branding. I usually have currys made from dehydrated roux base, which are OK I suppose, but very occasionally I have a boil-in-the-bag, which are excellent! Sadly, there’s no Indian curry houses nearby that I can get a proper carry-out from.
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A recent report from japan.internet.com on a survey conducted by iBridge Research Plus stuck together two slightly disjoint topics: the first, the focus of the survey, was noises from electrical items, the second being robocalls, prerecorded calls being blasted to your telephone or mobile phone.

Demographics

On the 24th of August 2009 300 members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group succesfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 18.0% in their twenties, 40.3% in their thirties, 36.0% in their forties, 5.0% in their fifties, and 0.7% in their sixties.

The noise is not electromagnetic hum – which would be an interesting topic in itself – but alert tones and tunes such as the wee ditties that my rice cooker and washing machine play on completion, or the automatic bath filler shouting “Your bath is drawn!” when it finishes. I think simple confirmation beeps when using buttons or remote controls are excluded from the survey, given that only 69.0% said they had noisy electricals.

Research results

Q1: Are you bothered by electronic noises from home electrical items? (Sample size=300)

All of it bothers me	3.7%
Some bothers me	29.3%
None bother me	36.0%
Don’t have any noisy electricals	31.0%

Q2: Have you ever had a robocall on your fixed line or mobile phone? (Sample size=300)

Yes (to SQ)	16.3%
No	66.0%
Don’t know	17.7%

Q2SQ: Did you feel uncomfortable when you got a robocall? (Sample size=49)

Yes	53.1%
No	42.9%
Don’t know	4.1%

Putting the two together we get:

Q2+Q2SQ: Has a robocall ever made you feel uncomfortable? (Sample size=300)

Yes	8.7%
No	7.0%
Don’t know	0.7%
Never had a robocall	66.0%
Don’t know if I’ve had a robocall	17.7%

There’s a lot of interesting data in this short survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into recording television programs, although I’d like to have seen a larger sample size and a more detailed look at some of the data.

Demographics

Between the 27h and 30th of August 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 2.0% in their teens, 18.0% 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.

The more detailed information I’d like (perhaps I’ll get it some time from goo Research’s regular digital TV survey?) is to see if people are currently buying either DVD or Blu-Ray recorders for their digital terrestrial decoders or for their recording capabilities, as it can be seen in Q1SQ2 that the recorders based around the dead HD DVD format are just as popular for time-shifting as Blu-Ray devices. With the analog switch-off less than two years away (24th July 2011), many of the almost one-in-three still using tape are going to find themselves in some trouble, I suspect.

I watch more real-time television – I use the weekends to catch up on stuff I’ve missed.
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Maids versus butlers would be a good title for a video game I suspect, but here it is just two related surveys from iShare, one on maids and the other on butlers.

Demographics

For the maid survey, between the 10th and 17th of August 2009 618 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.6% of the sample were male, 34.3% in their twenties, 30.4% in their thirties, and 35.3% in their forties.

For the butler survey, between the 11th and 18th of August 2009 587 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.7% of the sample were male, 33.6% in their twenties, 32.0% in their thirties, and 34.4% in their forties.

I’ll report the two surveys interleaved as the questions are similar in each. First will be the maid question which I will suffix with an M, so we get Q1M, for instance, then the butler question with a B, as in Q1B, etc.

Both maid cafes and butler cafes exist in Japan, as do female butler cafes, and no doubt male maid ones do too, but I’m not really in the mood for searching. Incidentally, I’ve recently twice seen on my train back from work a guy looking like a very ordinary otaku type except for a cheap maid dress, trying to hide his stubble behind some foundation, so perhaps he works at some low-end seedy male maid joint?
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