世論 What Japan Thinks

Having just got my gold status with Flying Blue and enough points banked for business class to Europe and back – that’s a really poor introduction and sounds just like the boasting that it is! Anyway, today’s survey is from MyVoice, looking at usage of airline mileage services.

Demographics

Over the first five days of October 2008 14,650 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

I think KLM are a very good airline, but their Flying Blue partner Air France were a bit iffy the one time I flew cattle class with them, but the main drawback with them is that their trans-Pacific partner is NorthWest. They charge $5 for a drink in economy, yet when I got to my destination in Boston last month I could get a pint of fresh draft at a rather posh hotel for just $4.50. They did upgrade me to business class on the way back, however, which was nice.

I’ve twice used saved ANA points; the first was on magnet pillows – the wife bought them! Next was on a pair of his and her watches that have performed rather well, considering.
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This ranking survey from goo Ranking may very well make you laugh out loud as yes indeed, the number one action that people get up to when no-one’s around is what you are thinking it is! Both women and men were separately reported.

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.

My wife would probably claim that I don’t bother waiting for no-one to be around before doing most of these actions!

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Autumn is probably my favourite season in Japan, but sadly that was not one of the questions posed in this survey from MyVoice, their second look at the taste of Autumn.

Demographics

Over the first five days of October 14,652 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, 38% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 17% aged fifty or older.

My Autumn foods would have to be the horrendously expensive matsutake mushrooms, although given the price of high quality ones I usually end up eating merely the prepacked off-cuts that come in rice topping kits. I do like chestnuts too, usually eaten with pasta or in chestnut flavour Kit-Kats, which have an almost coffee-like flavour and are well worth hunting down.
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Trains always have a certain charm for me, and the shinkansen (bullet train) more than most, but sometimes I feel there are things missing, with no wireless LAN even on the newest models being the most obvious omission. This survey from goo Ranking looked at what the Japanese felt they’d like to see on the shinkansen and other express trains.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 28th of July 2008 1,072 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 5.7% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 31,0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 10.5% in their fifties, and 10.4% 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.

The one thing I felt missing from express trains (not that I wanted to use it myself) is the opportunity to order special lunch boxes from stations you pass through. These eki-ben, as they are known, are rather popular for some reason I have never been able to understand.

With many of the answers it is not specified if people want the facilities to use or to avoid, although I suspect the latter for most of them!
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I don’t think I’ve ever bought used clothing, not even as a student, although if I were to buy in Japan it would most likely be a used kimono (see Q8). The other markets that I would have guessed would have been popular would be high-end branded items or evening dresses, but this recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into used clothes found otherwise. Note that the survey is not just clothes, but also accessories like shoes, bags and belts.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 18th of September 2008 10,099 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were female, 0.9% in their teens, 13.9% in their twenties, 34.5% in their thirties, 30.5% in their forties, 14.8% in their fifties, and 5.4% aged sixty or older.

My clothes budget is on a needs basis only, with my last purchase being a few pairs of socks at the start of the year.

I’m not aware of a similar chain to Oxfam in Japan that will kit out students for pennies, although if any of my readers can enlighten me…

For reference, I translated a similar survey from MyVoice on used items in general earlier this month.
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Here’s a quickie survey report published and conducted by goo Research. in conjuction with the Mainichi Shimbun, into exercise habits.

Demographics

Over the 25th and 26th of September 2008 1,079 members of the goo Research monitor pool over the age of twenty were randomly selected and completed an internet-based questionnaire. A more detailed demographics breakdown was not given.

Q1SQ1 was just a single answer question, but I’d have to answer all five, including the other category! As for school sports day sports, I’d probably go for the egg-and-spoon race once again.
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I think it might just be Scottish slang, but “I could fair murder a curry/Chinese/Mick Jagger” indicates a not inconsiderable desire to consume said item, and of course the second slang meaning fairly describes how people feel on first tasting Japanese curry. This survey from DIMSDRIVE Research looked at how the Japanese consume curry rice.

Demographics

Between the 23rd of July and the 7th of August 2008 9,921 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were female, 1.3% in their teens, 13.7% in their twenties, 34.0% in their thirties, 29.6% in their forties, 15.1% in their fifties, and 6.3% aged sixty or older. In addition, 14.0% lived alone, 64.1% were married, and 51.9% had children.

The name “curry rice” helps differentiate from “proper” curry; this Japanese invention, served at countless restaurants up and down the country, is usually half a plate of standard Japanese short-grain sticky white rice and half a plate of spicy stew. At home the stew is usually prepared from dehydrated blocks of sauce.

My wife cooks lovely curry with lots of potatos, but what most of the prepared mixes lack is a complexity of flavour. I was over in the USA last week and had a curry at a cheap food court, but just to get long-grain Basmati rice and a complex blend of spices that had soaked through the ingredients over many hours was heaven!
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A recent survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at how Japanese keep track of all five (or six, depending on what you count) of the four seasons via the weather forecast.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 3rd of October 2008 1,059 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.0% of the sample were male, 16.8% in their teens, 17.8% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 15.7% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

Just a couple of days ago I leafed through a bilingual book on questions on everyday things in Japan, with one of the questions being how the percentage of rain falling is calculated. Bascially, for the time period given it is the chance of more than 1 millimetre of rain falling within a single one hour period. There is no implication of how heavy the rain will be barring the 1 millimetre, however.
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This survey from MyVoice is their third home use air conditioner survey. I thought I had translated their second air conditioner survey last year, but it turns out it was from DIMSDRIVE Research instead. And it was more interesting…

Demographics

Over the first five days of September 2008 15,465 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online survey. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teeens, 15% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 19% in their fifties.

I looked at the previous survey and I discovered I said just about everything I know about Japanese air conditioners! I do get people searching occasionally for Japanese air conditioner manuals – the functionality is often rather complex and if you can’t read Japanese it’s difficult to know what to do. Now, there’s an idea for a Web 2.0 site – www.rimoconmaster.com (rimocon being the Japanese abbreviation for REMOte CONtroller), upload a photo of your remote (and rice cooker, microwave, etc) with the buttons labeled, or without them labeled and get other users to fill in the functions.
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Perhaps it’s partially because the rules on advertising beer in the UK and the US, etc are very strict about not promoting enjoying beer, but humour is often key theme in their advertisements. Without such shackles in Japan, television spots for beer focus on noisy gulping down of said alcoholic beverages. This subject, beer and advertisements, was the topic for a recent survey from MyVoice.

Demographics

Over the first five days of September 2008 15,367 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 15% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 19% in their fifties.

Just to give you an idea on how these beers get advertised, in Q2 I’ve embedded YouTube videos for each of the brands. Yes, that’s a very young Helena Bonham-Carter selling Suntory Malts! As a bonus, here’s an extra advert that I can’t embed…
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