Japan could do with more slow lifestyles and slow food, as the impression I get in my working life is that I myself barely get any time to breath, so I don’t know how my colleagues who are in the office far longer than I cope. To find out how the average person felt about their leisure or lack thereof, MyVoice performed a survey about lifestyles.
Demographics
Over the first five days of August 2007 12,308 members of the MyVoice online community successfully completed an online survey. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 17% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 15% in their fifties.
For the sake of this survey, Slow Life was explained as “even if it is inconvenient, live the natural life for yourself surrounded by nature”; Fast Life was “even if it takes money, live a luxurious and convenient life with all the city benefits in a gadget-rich environment”.
I’d love to see the breakdown of the answers in Q2 by type of employment. I feel I have little room to spare for me alone (although we have enough time as a couple) but I don’t know how my colleagues feel. I suspect (or worry) that they are resigned to week-days being written off, and the image of Japanese salarymen is that at weekends they more often than not do their own thing golfing, fishing, gambling or whatever. Read the rest of this entry »
Perhaps just because I come from more northern stock where skin is paler and more susceptible to not just burning but melanoma and skin cancer, but I feel that over-exposure to the sun is seen more a beauty rather than a health issue here in Japan, and indeed there seems to be a lot of folk wisdom that suggests a child cooked brown is a healthy child. In addition, given the apparent lack of parental care regarding second-hand smoke and child car seats, for instance, I lloked forward to seeing what results came from a recent survey by DIMSDRIVE Research on the topic of ultraviolet protection for children.
Demographics
Between the 20th and 29th of June 2007 DIMSDRIVE Research interviewed 7,121 members of its internet monitor pool by means of a private online questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample was female, 1.0% in their teens, 14.2% in their twenties, 34.0% in their thirties, 29.7% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 6.5% aged sixty or older. 66.0% were married, and 53.0% had children.
For myself, I wear a hat mostly, and avoid going out for too long in the summertime sun. Thinking about it, in the last few years I’ve actually had sunburn more often when abroad than in Japan, which is perhaps a reflection on Japan being far too hot meaning I have stay in air-conditioned space as much as possible.
I’ve done a bit of web research to find out what is the incidence of skin cancer in Japan, and surprisingly it looks like it is almost neglegible. It doesn’t merit its own separate category in the official cancer statistics of Japan (interestingly, by 2020 prostate cancer will be the second most common cancer in men, yet I’ve never ever seen it mentioned on any popular health program here, and I watch rather a lot of them), and a rather old TIME article suggests that Japanese in Kauai, Hawaii are 88 times more likely than Japanese in Japan to develop skin malignancy. Read the rest of this entry »
Ahh, coffee! I really love a good cup of coffee, but if I drink more than one cup a day the caffeine affects my sleep patterns. I can get away with many cups of tea, though; it’s just coffee’s (and dark chocolate’s, and gyokuro green tea’s) caffeine that does me in. Anyway, MyVoice took a look at the role of coffee in everyday life to see what the average Japanese thinks.
Demographics
Over the first five days of August 2007 12,126 members of the MyVoice online community successfully completed an online survey. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 17% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 28% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.
I’ve looked at coffee consumption before, but hopefully this survey sheds some new light on the subject. Note that Q1 describes the most often drunk type, so perhaps those who drink canned coffee on the way to work, for instance, also down instant or filter coffee at the office, thus resulting in the poor showing for canned coffee in the results?
There’s a new advertisement out for Wonda Morning Shot canned coffee out now, so I tried my hand at uploading it to YouTube, so hopefully this works for you all. It features the famous director Akira Kurosawa, mounted samurai hordes, and a rush-hour train.
With mobile phones becoming an essential item for parents to give their children, and with mobile phone companies advertising child-tracking services, it would be interesting to look at a recent article published by japan.internet.com on the results of a survey conducted by goo Research into children using mobile phones.
Demographics
Between the 16th and 20th of August 2007 1,077 members of goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample was male, 23.6% in their twenties, 22.0% in their thirties, 21.2% in their forties, 20.2% in their fifties, and 13.0% aged sixty or older.
I rather like the current au advertisement for their child-tracking service, so I present it here for your enjoyment.
I think foreign residents in Japan actually seem on average to be better users of chopsticks than the Japanese, although I have absolutely no data to back up that claim, nor a similar claim that most foreigners’ chopstick skills outdo Japanese’s cutlery skills. However, there are a multitude of finer points of etiquette regarding these implements that may not be familiar to many of my readers, nor to me for that matter, so to see what faux pas our hosts may be looking out for, or indeed doing themselves, let’s look at a couple of surveys from goo Ranking on bad chopstick habits people have and bad manners in others that they can’t help noticing. Both surveys were conducted between the 20th and 24th of July 2007.
For me, in Q1 I do 1 rarely, 2 a bit with soba, and 5 sometimes. One manner not noted is rubbing the ends of your sticks together to get rid of splinters, which is apparently an insult to the restaurant or host that you think their chopsticks are cheap and splinter-prone. Read the rest of this entry »
In an attempt to jump onto two bandwagons at once, I couldn’t resist that headline to go with recent research from Yahoo! Japan Value Insight (ex-INFOPlant) on weight loss diets. The results presented below are just the highlights of the full report consisting of twenty-one questions, ten on diets in general, eleven on Billy’ Boot Camp in particular.
Demographics
Over the 27th and 28th of July 2007 400 members of Value Insight’s online questionnaire panel successfully completed a private questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% in their fifties.
The title of this article comes from comparing the awareness figures for this survey versus the awareness of another big thing in Japan, the iPhone. About seven or eight in ten have heard of the iPhone, whereas 85% have heard of Billy Blanks’ diet; indeed in the key female dieting age range from 20 to 49 over 99% of the women have at least heard his name! Read the rest of this entry »
Between the 1st and 5th of July 2007 14,119 members of the MyVoice internet community answered a private internet-based questionnaire. 57% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.
The top-rated foodstuff, Calorie Mate, is also just about the most heavily advertised, notable for the use of Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer) in “24″-like situations.
One way of making Japan a cheaper country to live it is to make sure you participate in as many point cards and other loyalty schemes as possible, as many shops and restaurants offer some degree of discounts (often from 3% to 10% or more) if you sign up to their schemes. Of course, one drawback is that you end up with a bulging wallet and time-consuming scrambles looking for the correct card. Recently, Macromill Inc reported on a survey they conducted on this topic, point cards.
Demographics
Over the 13th and 14th of July 2007 516 members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split exactly 50:50 male and female in each age group, and similarly there were 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties and 25.0% in their fifties.
Note that in this survey questions Q1 and Q2, point cards include stamp cards, airline mileage cards, and other loyalty point-based systems, but exclude credit card points, which are investingated in Qs 5 to 7. However, some of the newer combined credit card and railway pass cards have schemes where you get bonus points for spending money in the railway line’s department store or other group companies, so I don’t know whether these point schemes are counted or not.
With some of the big electrical chains who have point systems offering from 10% to 20% depending on purchases, it can be definitely argued that their prices are artificially higher to fund this system, and with comparison shopping it is possible to save more money. However, in Osaka the choice for me is bascially either the huge Yodobashi Camera right beside the main station or perhaps saving 5% to 10% if I head down to Den-Den Town, taking 10 minutes in the subway then 15 minutes by foot, fighting my way through the crowds, then hoping the store still has the product in stock, takes credit cards, doesn’t have a prohibitive delivery cost, etc. Read the rest of this entry »
The delightful character pictured above represents the top behaviour (or should the be the bottom?) that Japanese find objectionable in drunks. Click on his sozzled visage, and for just 420 yen (US$3.50 or so) you too can take him, or one of his friends, home tonight! So, here we go with this pair of surveys from goo Research on what people end up doing when drunk and what behaviour in drunks other people find uncomfortable.
Demographics
Between the 19th and 21st of June 2007 an unspecified number of members of the goo Research online monitor group supplied their answers to the questions via a private internet-based questionnaire. As usual for goo Ranking, the top item gets 100 points, and the others get a score that corresponds to the percentage of votes in relation to the top voted item.
My biggest failing when drunk is I suppose talking in a loud voice, which seems to start even before I have any alcohol!
I found it interesting in Q1 that men flirt but women sexually harrass, according to the Japanese terms used to describe getting frisky after a couple of shandies. Read the rest of this entry »
As I value my eardrums and my lungs, I’ve never ventured into the smoke-filled clamour of a pachinko parlour, although I did once enter a Kyotei boat racing stadium due to getting off the train to Miyajima in Hiroshima one stop early! Recently, MyVoice looked in detail at this, gambling in Japan.
Demographics
Over the first five days of July 2007 13,236 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was male, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 13% aged fifty or older.
With everyone’s favourite politician, the governer of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, talking about bringing casinos to Japan it is interesting to see in Q6 that people support this by about two to one, although half the population is still to decide. Personally, if done right I would bascially support the moves, but I fear the chances of it being anything other than a haven for dodgy Yakuza operations are rather slim.
Note that as pachinko and gambling in general seems to have a lower class image but the MyVoice community seems to have a slight bias towards the higher end of the class scale, I would suspect that the figures are if anything an underestimation. Earlier this year I reported on another survey on gambling, this time by Central Research Services. Read the rest of this entry »
Japan could do with more slow lifestyles and slow food, as the impression I get in my working life is that I myself barely get any time to breath, so I don’t know how my colleagues who are in the office far longer than I cope. To find out how the average person felt about their leisure or lack thereof, MyVoice performed a survey about lifestyles.
Perhaps just because I come from more northern stock where skin is paler and more susceptible to not just burning but melanoma and skin cancer, but I feel that over-exposure to the sun is seen more a beauty rather than a health issue here in Japan, and indeed there seems to be a lot of folk wisdom that suggests a child cooked brown is a healthy child. In addition, given the apparent lack of parental care regarding second-hand smoke and child car seats, for instance, I lloked forward to seeing what results came from a recent survey by DIMSDRIVE Research on the topic of 
In an attempt to jump onto two bandwagons at once, I couldn’t resist that headline to go with recent research from Yahoo! Japan Value Insight (ex-INFOPlant) on 
One way of making Japan a cheaper country to live it is to make sure you participate in as many point cards and other loyalty schemes as possible, as many shops and restaurants offer some degree of discounts (often from 3% to 10% or more) if you sign up to their schemes. Of course, one drawback is that you end up with a bulging wallet and time-consuming scrambles looking for the correct card. Recently, Macromill Inc reported on a survey they conducted on this topic, 
The delightful character pictured above represents the top behaviour (or should the be the bottom?) that Japanese find objectionable in drunks. Click on his sozzled visage, and for just 420 yen (US$3.50 or so) you too can take him, or one of his friends, home tonight! So, here we go with this pair of surveys from goo Research on 
As I value my eardrums and my lungs, I’ve never ventured into the smoke-filled clamour of a pachinko parlour, although I did once enter a Kyotei boat racing stadium due to getting off the train to Miyajima in Hiroshima one stop early! Recently, MyVoice looked in detail at this, 
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