世論 What Japan Thinks

Although the topic of this survey from DIMSDRIVE Research Inc was fish, the most interesting figure for me was some data to allow me to estimate the number of vegetarians in Japan.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 16th of Octoer 2008 9,524 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.5% of the sample were male, 1.3% in their teens, 13.7% in their twenties, 34.% in their thirties, 31.2% in their forties, 14.5% in their fifties, and 5.1% aged sixty or older.

The vegetarian numbers can be derived from first noticing that 0.7% don’t eat fish according to Q2, then 2.7% of these 0.7% say they don’t eat fish because they are vegetarians, meaning that a whole 8 people from the original 9,524, or 0.08% of the sample, which makes a mere 10,000 vegetarians in the whole of Japan! Of course, monks would inflate the figures, although note that the average local priest is not averse to even grilled beef!

Note that here fish refers to fish only, not other beasts of the sea like octopus, squid, prawns, shellfish, or indeed whale.
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Christmas is coming, so let’s see what the Japanese are planning on doing with this survey from Macromill Inc looking at Christmas.

Demographics

Over the 2nd and 3rd of December 2008 516 members of the Macromill Monitor group resident in Tokyo and the three surrounding prefectures completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, and 25.0% were in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% in their fifties.

Wham! fits in well with a recent post over at Rocking in Hakata as Deas mentions that a Japanese cover of Last Christmas has been released. Indeed, I just heard the song for the first time tonight, and sadly but not surprisingly the English grates, sufficient to make me want to hear the original.

Note that in this survey Christmas is actually Christmas Eve. All the carry-on happens on that night, and come Christmas Day (just another day in the office) everything is tidied up for another year and replaced by the New Year decorations.
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I wonder how the fear of impending collapse in a number of the car manufacturers will affect their investments into research and development into alternative power sources. However, this survey from MyVoice into electric cars was conducted before the bottom fell out of the manufacturing business, so such worries are not reflected in the results.

Demographics

Over the first five days of November 2008 15,382 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 19% aged fifty or older.

Although I’m not convinced yet of the overall relative environmental impact of electric vehicles, they go some way to at least displacing pollution. Hybrids like the Toyota Prius are a nice ride once you get used to the gearbox, though, but I can’t see me giving up the train in the forseeable future.
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But, to my English teaching readers, don’t all start patting yourselves on the back yet, as this survey from iShare on foreign languages also reveals that less than one in fifteen feel capable of stringing more than a few words together.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 25th of November 2008 430 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.5% of the sample were male, 13.3% were in their twenties, 54.4% in their thirties, 23.5% in their forties, and 8.8% in their teens or fifty or older.

Note that at least those in their twenties and thirties should have studied English for all six years in high school.

One wonders how much degree of racial bias is in the answers of favourite language, as Asian languages are rated much lower than Western ones. On the other hand I do find Chinese and Korean pretty rough on my ears, but then again, German can be too. I wonder, though, why exactly is knowing a language rated as cool? Is it due to perception of difficulty or association with having travelled to countries or moved in circles associated with the language?
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Well, they are actually called 忘年会, bounenkai, forget the year parties, over here but they serve a similar purpose to said Xmas event. To find out what you shouldn’t do there, goo Ranking had a look at the NG activities at a bounenkai. NG is a commonly-used abbreviation in Japan too, for No Good.

Demographics

Between the 21th and 24th of October 2008 1,056 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were female, 5.0% in their teens, 13.2% in their twenties, 28.4% in their thirties, 31.5% in their forties, 13.1% in their fifties, and 8.8% 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.

Since this is a silly survey, I’ll be a bit freer with the translation today! I also couldn’t be bothered waiting until Sunday to present this.

I hope I can rely on Roaf at Gaijin Tonic to break most of these rules at this year’s bounenkai!

Which reminds me, you can buy drunken salarymen mobile phone charms from Strapya.
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Own brands, or house brands as I think they are known as in the USA, or private brands as they are known in Japan, are the supermarket’s own label items that are sold cheaper than the household brand names. To see what Japan thinks of them, MyVoice performed a survey into own brand products.

Demographics

Over the first five days on November 2008 15,510 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

I try to keep away from own brands in Japan, as I’ve not had very good experiences with them, on the whole. Daiei do fake Kit-Kats, for instance. Their plain ones just don’t have the right chocolate or the crispiness in the wafer, and their flavoured ones are downright nasty!

I think I remember back in the UK there was a web site that listed which own brands were repackaged famous brands; I wonder if such a service exists over here?
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This recent survey from iShare looked at cinemas, touching on where I went for my first date with my wife, the cinema, which is actually a really poor place to choose, but that’s another matter altogether!

Demographics

Between the 12th and 14th of November 2008 just 404 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.7% of the sample were male, 13.6% in their twenties, 47.8% in their thirties, 27.7% in their forties, and 10.9% in their teens or aged fifty or older.

Note that for Q1 there are two reasons why women go to the movies more; first there are more women with the free time to go, and second most cinemas have a “Ladies’ Day” once per week where they charge 1,000 yen per ticket for the ladies. Us men only have the first of the month to get our cheap tickets, although I have seen one cinema, Movix Rokko, that also has a Men’s Day.

Two days I also signed up for a Toho Cinema Mastercard that promises to give one free movie for every six, including movies watched using advance discount tickets.
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This week’s fun from goo Ranking is a look at the secrets of keeping that newly-wed feeling going, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 21th and 24th of October 2008 1,056 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were female, 5.0% in their teens, 13.2% in their twenties, 28.4% in their thirties, 31.5% in their forties, 13.1% in their fifties, and 8.8% 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’m not sure if unmarried people were excluded or asked to imagine what they should do.

Looking at the men’s list, I know to my cost that number two is very, very important, but I’m not sure that number ten is really advisable as a general rule!

Talking of newly-weds, one of my Japanese colleagues recently got married, and shortly afterwards went off to a work drinking party where the long-time married guys were giving him advice. The key was to be really selfish for the first month so that the ground rules get established, as being too cooperative straight off the bat would only lead to trouble further down the line!
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I was prompted to translate this survey by Mari’s recent mention of such cars. Ita-sha, literally painful cars (to look at, or from the point of view of the car?), painted up with anime characters of the so-called moe kind, which usually means infeasibly large-breasted schoolgirls. This recent survey published by iShare on the topic of car customisation found almost one in three willing, to use the vernacular, to rice up their cars.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of October 2008 424 members of the free email forwarding service CLUB BBQ completed a private online questionnaire. 53.8% of the sample were male, 15.3% in their twenties, 49.3% in their thirties, 26.7% in their forties, and 8.7% in their teens or fifty or older. The sample is a bit small to draw conclusions from, but the topic is quite fun so it would be a shame not to translate this one.

I’ve never seen a manga-adorned car myself, although there is no shortage of be-spoilered and be-skirted mini-vans farting around town with their after-market exhausts which certainly qualify as ita-sha in terms of my own eyes and ears.
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Here’s a fun survey from goo Ranking that I’d love to hear everyone else’s input on! The looked at what people secretly think they are number one for amongst their friends. Sadly there wasn’t a male/female split!

Demographics

Between the 24th and 26th of September 2008 1,044 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 5.8% in their teens, 12.7% in their twenties, 32.3% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 12.3% in their fifties, and 9.3% 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.

Apart from obviously being the most handsome amongst my fellow gaijin bloggers, I secretly believe that I put the most effort per post into my blogs compared to you lot of slackers who just slap up a few videos from YouTube mixed in with a bit of Engrish and… Oops, I just remembered that the survey isn’t “Why are your friends all useless?”

What’s your secret boast? Don’t worry, I won’t tell.

(I also didn’t repeat my previous mistake when translating number 3 here)
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