世論 What Japan Thinks

DIMSDRIVE performed a survey regarding the use of massage parlours amongst 5,954 members of their internet survey group. 2,441 men and 3,513 women of all ages participated in the survey. I’ve been once for a massage myself, at Queensway which was rather nice, but because they also do reflexology, I don’t want to spend any more money supporting quackery. Note that this survey is not about that kind of massage.

Q: Have you been to a massage parlour? (N=5,954)

Yes	47.7%
No	52.3%

Studying the age breakdown, for men only those in their forties had a majority who had been; for women only a quarter of the teenagers had been, but all other age groups (bar between 50 and 59 years old, by 0.2%) a small majority had been.

Now for those 3,112 who have been, various questions were asked.

Q: How frequently do you go?

More than once a week	3.8%
Two or three times a month	8.6%
Once a month	11.0%
Once every two or three months	15.2%
Once every six months	13.3%
Once a year	6.8%
Less than that	16.2%
No particular frequency of visits	25.1%

Q: On average, how long is each visit?

Up to 15 minutes	4.9%
Up to 20 minutes	8.3%
Up to 30 minutes	30.5%
Up to 45 minutes	15.7%
Up to 60 minutes	29.4%
Longer than 60 minutes	5.3%
No particular fixed length of time	5.9%

Q: Which body part do you usually get massaged? (Multiple answer)

Shoulders	57.9%
Lumbar regions	44.6%
Spine	42.7%
Neck	42.5%
Feet	33.31%
All body	31.8%
Soles of feet	24.5%
Arms or hands	13.7%
Head	10.3%
Other	0.9%

Q: Who do you often go with? (Multiple answer)

By myself	77.7%
Family	14.6%
Friends	13.5%
Lover	3.6%
Colleagues	2.4%
Other	0.0%

Q: Where are the parlours you often go to situated? (Multiple answer)

Near home	35.2%
Near station	30.2%
Near work	15.6%
In shopping centre	14.7%
In department store	6.1%
Inside station	5.5%
Others	16.3%

Q: Around what time do you often visit? (Multiple answer)

Weekday morning	11.6%
Weekday lunchtime	13.2%
Weekday afternoon or evening	29.4%
Weekday night	22.3%
Weekend morning	8.7%
Weekend lunchtime	13.3%
Weekend afternoon or evening	24.5%
Weekend night	5.0%
Other	4.1%

Next, the styles of massage the people have had performed on various parts of the body was investigated. The highlights were British style was most popular for soles of the feet (reflexology quackery is popular), and Thai style was the most popular for the whole body.

Q: Do you have a favourite massage parlour? (Sample size=3,112)

Yes	60.2%
No	39.8%

SQ: If answered yes to previous question, how did you find that favourite parlour? (Sample size=1,240, multiple answer)

Just came across it	41.0%
Friends or family introduced it	36.6%
Word of mouth	20.8%
Free newspaper	12.0%
Internet	9.4%
Magazine	6.8%
Television	2.0%
Other	3.1%

SQ: If answered yes to previous question, why do you like it? (Sample size=1,240, multiple answer)

Good technique	58.8%
Easy access	51.9%
Responsive staff	46.0%
Reasonable price	40.2%
Clean shop	33.2%
Good service	28.4%
Takes reservations	13.8%
Private rooms	13.1%
Long or late opening hours	12.8%
Same sex masseurs	11.0%
Other	3.2%

Q: For those who have never used a massage parlour, do you want to? (Sample size=2,842)

Want to	56.6%
Don’t want to	17.1%
Don’t know	26.3%

Women, by almost half as much again than men want to visit a parlour.

Q: For those who have never used a massage parlour, if a parlour has what sort of features would you want to try to visit? (Sample size not mentioned, perhaps 2,842 * 56.6%=1,609, multiple answer)

Reasonable price	92.5%
Clean shop	76.7%
Easy access	71.3%
Same sex masseurs	38.5%
Private rooms	37.7%
Various styles of massage available	32.0%
Long or late opening hours	27.2%
Health consultations given	26.8%
Can go with friends or family	14.6%
Cafe or restaurant facilities	14.0%
Takes reservations	13.9%
Creche facilites	12.6%
Popular with locals	9.6%
Introduced by TV or magazines	8.9%
Children’s massage available	4.2%
Home visiting service	3.7%
Others	2.1%
Don’t know	0.2%

In Japan, Christmas cards are, obviously, almost unheard of, so instead the traditional season’s greetings are done via 年賀状ハガキ nengajou hagaki, New Year’s greetings postcards. The themes for the cards usually reflect the Chinese zodiac with this coming year being the Year of the Dog, so no doubt, given the current dog boom in Japan, stupid chihuahuas will adorn most cards. I usually send cards out to my colleagues, but this year, thanks to new privacy regulations, the list of home addresses of my colleagues is now Company Confidential, so we have been banned from creating personal address books from the data!

SourceNext conducted a small net-based survey on people’s plans for the coming season, and found out the following snippets of information. The sample was 516 people from all over the country, exactly 50:50 male and female, carried out in mid-September.

Q1: Do you plan to send New Years greeting cards (not just postcards, including e-mail or mobile-phone message, etc) this coming New Year? (Sample size=516)

Yes	89.7%
No	10.3%

Q2: What way will you send your greetings? (Sample size=463, multiple answer)

Postcard	95.7%
e-mail	37.1%
Mobile phone	31.1%
Web-based greetings car service	18.6%
Others	0.0%
No answer	0.0%

Q3: Including e-mail, etc, in total about how many New Year’s greetings will you send? (Sample size=463)

10 or less	7.6%
11 to 30	28.3%
31 to 50	21.4%
51 to 100	23.3%
101 or more	19.4%

Q4: Including e-mail, etc, will you use separate designs for work and personal, etc, New Year’s greetings? (Sample size=463)

Yes	51.8%
No	48.2%

Q5: About how many different designs will you make? (Sample size=480 where did that number come from? Shouldn’t it be 463*51.8%=240? Since there are two sub-questions, everyone counts twice?)

Work use

Two designs	54.2%
Three designs	2.1%
Four designs	0.4%
Five or more designs	0.8%
Won’t make or won’t separate (ie 0 or 1)	42.5%

Personal use

Two designs	63.3%
Three designs	17.1%
Four designs	2.9%
Five or more designs	10.0%
Won’t make or won’t separate (ie 0 or 1)	6.7%

Q6: When do you plan on buying your New Year postcards? (Sample size=443)

As soon as they go on sale	20.5%
November (but not ASAP)	25.1%
December	31.4%
January (!)	0.7%
Not decided	22.3%

Q7: When do you plan on starting making (ie writing or printing) your New Years greetings cards? NB: Last posting date is 24th December. (Sample size=443)

November	5.6%
December 1st to 24th	64.8%
December 25th to 31st	17.2%
January	1.6%
Not decided	10.8%

Q8: How will you make the postcards cards? Answer for the picture side and address sides separately. (Sample size=433+433=886, multiple answer)

	By hand	Software	Home printing machine	Order from printing company	Others
Address side	33.0%	68.2%	1.4%	0.7%	1.1%
Picture side	16.5%	77.9%	4.1%	6.8%	5.9%

Q9: What sort of greetings card do you want to use? (Sample size=463, multiple answer)

Chinese zodiac picture or illustration	75.8%
Other illustration	30.2%
Pet photo	6.9%
Family or children photo	21.2%
Others	5.6%

Q10: About how much would you spend on greetings card design software? (Sample size=117) Presumably there was a “Would you buy design software?” question to cut down the sample size.

Up to 1000 yen	20.5%
Up to 2000 yen	26.5%
Up to 3000 yen	31.6%
Up to 5000 yen	17.1%
Up to 8000 yen	3.4%
Over 8000 yen	0.9%

Q11: Why would you buy card design software? (Sample size=117, multiple answer)

For this year’s original contents	77.8%
For the latest features	33.3%
Others	7.7%

iShare Inc have once again surveyed CLUB BBQ members, this time to find out about shopping trends on their mobiles. They got 2,270 valid responses to their survey, carried out at the start of September. 60.6% of their respondents were male.

iShare discovered that a lot of people did their shopping from the comfort of their own homes, so dubbed them “Couch Keitais (mobiles)”, which might be rendered in English as “immobile phoners”. On with the figures; note that the figures in most of the tables below have been reported with no decimal places.

First of all, only 9.1% of the survey group (207 respondents) have bought mail-order goods via their mobiles. However, the most popular by far place for shopping was sitting on the sofa at home, with 44.5% of the 207 (92 people) reporting that as where they make their purchases. Next was while on the move, with only 23.1% selecting that.

When asked why they use a particular mobile phone shopping site, the most popular reason, with 34.2% of shoppers choosing it, was that because it’s the same site as usually used from a PC. Conversely, given the choice between a PC site and a sister mobile-based site, 42.2% (of everyone or just mobile shoppers?) would choose to continue using the PC.

I wonder if the full report asks what people think about using a portable PC (or even PDA-sized) and wireless LAN instead?

Now to some of the numbers that have been quoted in detail.

Q: For those of you who have used a shopping site from your mobile, are you on a flat-fee mobile internet use plan?

Yes	43%
No	57%

Q: For those of you who have not used a shopping site from your mobile, are you on a flat-fee mobile internet use plan?

Yes	16%
No	84%

Q: For those of you who have used a shopping site from your mobile, what have you bought?

Clothes	10%
Food	12%
Books	28%
Tickets	21%
Other	30%

“Others” in the last two tables include primarily CDs and DVDs.

This was a multiple answer question, but they have presented the results as a percentage. You have to pay money to find out the real figures…

Q: For those of you who have not used a shopping site from your mobile, what might you like to buy?

Clothes	3%
Food	5%
Books	35%
Tickets	46%
Other	12%

Q: When buying goods from your mobile, how did you pay for goods? If you’ve not shopped how would you want to pay? (Single answer)

	Net Shoppers	Not net shoppers
Together with phone bill	8.9%	31.6%
Credit card	43.8%	26.6%
Convenience store	12.5%	19.0%
Bank transfer	12.5%	8.1%
Others	5.2%	2.8%

MyVoice recently published this survey regarding home robots. For me personally, all this robot stuff is very gimmicky; static sensor arrays would be much more useful for almost all purposes (except for vaccuuming of course), and the cost of static machinery is far lower that making some virtually useless moving guard robot, given today’s, or even tomorrow’s technology. However, with almost two-thirds of respondents failing to register anxiety at the robotisation of the home, and half keen on welcoming them into their homes, surely this is nothing but another win for the Lizard Alliance and the RoTM™?

MyVoice surveyed 17,958 people registered in the MyVoice community; 42% male and 39% in their thirties. The results are as follows:

Q1: Do you think you’d want to use a robot in your home?

I absolutely want to use	13.9%
I probably want to use	36.0%
I can’t say whether I want to or not	29.6%
I don’t really want to use	12.2%
I absolutely don’t want to use	8.3%

Q2: What sort of robot functions do you want to use? (Multiple answer)

Cleaning the house	58.4%
Crime prevention	55.3%
Home minding	39.2%
Tidying up after meals	34.4%
Clothes washing	26.8%
Ironing	23.1%
Cooking	22.1%
Carrying baggage	21.8%
Healing	19.9%
Play	18.9%
Nursing	17.7%
Driving car	16.9%
Work or study help	15.3%
Communication or chat	15.1%
Health management	12.0%
Child minding or child eduction	10.4%
Others	2.2%
I don’t want to use a robot	11.3%
No answer	0.2%

Note: the difference between “crime prevention” and “home minding” is probably that “crime prevention” implies detection of intruders, whereas “home minding” is more just monitoring the house, answering the phone or the door, watching the cat, etc.

Q3: If you bought a robot, up to about how much would you pay?

Up to 10,000 yen	11.9%
10,000 to 100,000 yen	37.8%
100,000 to 200,000 yen	13.4%
200,000 to 300,000 yen	7.0%
300,000 to 500,000 yen	5.2%
500,000 to 1,000,000 yen	5.0%
1,000,000 to 10,000,000 yen	1.1%
Over 10,000,000 yen	0.2%
I don’t think I want to buy	18.0%
No answer	0.5%

Q4: Are you uneasy about the spread of home robots?

I feel completely uneasy about it	6.7%
I’m a little uneasy about it	27.4%
I can’t say whether I am uneasy or not	34.1%
I don’t really feel uneasy	22.4%
I don’t feel uneasy at all	8.4%
No answer	1.0%

At the end of last month, goo Research performed a survey amongst over 20,000 women to find out their attitudes towards breast cancer. This research was carried out on behalf of three organisations, Japan Society of Breast Care, Japan Cancer Society and J.POSH.

The survey details are: the respondents were selected from goo Reseach Monitor Group’s female members, with 21,106 women successfully completing the web-based questionnaire. 1.0% were 19 years old or under, 8.5% were 20-24, 19.5% were 25-29, 26.3% were 30-34, 19.4% were 35-39, 13.3% were 40-44, 6.4% were 45-49, 3.0% were 50-54, 1.8% were 55-59, and just 0.8% were 60 or over. 66.7% were married, and 52.7% had given birth.

Q1: Are you concerned about breast cancer? (Sample size=21,106)

	Very concerned	Somewhat concerned	Neither concerned nor unconcerned	Not very concerned	Not at all concerned
All	30.0%	54.5%	11.5%	3.6%	0.4%
Up to 19 y.o.	16.5%	46.6%	22.8%	11.7%	2.4%
20-24 y.o.	23.0%	53.5%	15.2%	7.5%	0.8%
25-29 y.o.	28.6%	55.4%	11.7%	3.9%	0.3%
30-34 y.o.	30.6%	55.7%	10.8%	2.6%	0.3%
35-39 y.o.	31.1%	54.9%	10.4%	3.2%	0.4%
40-44 y.o.	32.0%	54.3%	10.5%	3.0%	0.2%
45-49 y.o.	31.6%	53.7%	12.7%	1.8%	0.5%
50-54 y.o.	33.3%	48.4%	12.7%	4.7%	0.8%
55-59 y.o.	37.2%	48.4%	9.4%	4.7%	0.3%
Over 60 y.o.	32.3%	49.4%	14.0%	4.3%	0.0%

Q2: Where do you get your information about breast cancer? (Sample size=21,106, multiple answer)

Mother	12.9%
Other family or relatives	6.1%
Friends and acquaintances	23.4%
Newspapers	29.3%
Books or magazines	41.0%
TV or radio	53.0%
Internet	45.2%
Local government information leaflet	13.0%
Doctor	15.6%
Medical check-up service organisation	23.3%
Workplace or school health service	3.6%
I’ve never had information about breast cancer	9.7%
Other	0.7%

Q3: Do you know the following information about breast cancer? (Sample size=21,106, multiple answer)

It’s rapidly increasing within Japanese women	48.0%
Over one in thirty Japanese women will get it	18.5%
Once past your late thirties, the chance of breast cancer drastically increases	47.4%
It’s the leading cause of death from cancer in women from 30 to 64 years old	15.1%
If discovered early, the chance of recovery is 95%	51.5%
If you have regular imaging checks, there is a good chance of discovering cancer	45.6%
It’s a disease you can detect yourself	60.2%
Mammography will discover abnormalities much earlier than touching examinations	55.3%
Don’t know any of the above	6.8%

Q4: If you found a lump or other abnormality on your breast, what sort of clinic do you think you would go to? (Sample size=21,106)

Gynecology clinic	51.9%
Obstetrics and gynaecology clinic	9.6%
Internal medicine clinic	3.7%
Surgical clinic	8.7%
Breast specialist	25.8%
Others	0.4%

Q5: Do you know about specialised breast clinics? (Sample size=21,106)

I know about them	26.6%
I’ve heard about them, but don’t know the details	25.2%
Not heard of them at all	48.2%

Q6: How frequently do you have general health check-ups? (Sample size=21,106)

Every six months	3.5%
Once a year	48.3%
Once every two years	6.9%
Less than once every three years	10.5%
Not had one for over five years	13.1%
Not had one for over ten years	7.2%
Never had one	9.8%
Don’t want to answer	0.8%

Q7: What sort of breast examinations have you had? (Sample size=19,799, multiple answer)

Self-examination	25.6%
Visual and touch examination	34.5%
Mammography	15.6%
Ultrasound	17.6%
Never had one	55.3%
Don’t want to answer	0.7%

Q8: How frequently have you had a uterine cancer test? (Sample size=21,106)

Every six months	2.3%
Once a year	25.5%
Once every two years	9.1%
Less than once every three years	9.0%
Not had one for over five years	6.0%
Not had one for over ten years	2.2%
Never had one	44.7%
Don’t want to answer	1.2%

Q9: What was your motivation for having a breast cancer examination? (Sample size=8,706, multiple answer)

It was recommended that I should	10.2%
I saw information about it in the media (roadshow, magazine, TV, etc)	8.2%
It was part of a workplace check	25.5%
It was part of a local government check	34.2%
I felt myself it was necessary	35.5%
Because a friend or acquaintance has breast cancer	6.5%
Because a family member or relative has breast cancer	6.5%
I was motivated by a breast disease other than cancer	3.6%
Other	9.1%

Q10: Why did you not take a breast cancer examination? (Sample size=12,264, multiple answer)

I’d not had lumps or other symptoms recently	62.6%
At my age, breast cancer is not an issue	12.3%
No-one around me is taking them	12.8%
Takes too long to do it	20.4%
Scared that cancer might be found	7.8%
Not part of the workplace or local government health checks	12.0%
Not had an opportunity to take it	43.9%
I don’t know where to get an examination	15.1%
Nowhere locally to get an examination	5.2%
It’s a delicate matter	13.6%
I’m not concerned about breast cancer	3.6%
Other	5.0%

Q11: In the area you live in, does the local government carry out breast cancer screening? (Sample size=21,106)

Carries out	53.4%
Doesn’t carry out	2.9%
Don’t know	43.7%

Q12: If answered “Carries out” to Q11, in the area you live in, what sort of breast cancer screening examination does the local government perform? (Sample size=11,274, multiple answer)

Visual and touch examination	75.6%
Mammography	40.0%
Ultrasound	18.8%
Other	14.5%

Q13: Which of the following topics do you want to learn about regarding breast cancer? (Sample size=21,106, multiple answer)

About the disease	50.9%
About hospitals that do screening	59.0%
Infomation about breast specialists	54.4%
About local government measures	40.9%
About disease prevention methods	59.1%
About treatment methods	53.5%
About after-effects	34.9%
About medicines	30.2%
About fees for treatment etc	53.4%
About communities and information exchanges	13.4%
About latest information	31.8%
No information I want	2.4%
Others	0.8%

A bit of a biggie again tonight. I’m surprised that there is no direct question about how often people have had breast cancer checks (is this deliberate as they don’t want to highlight a largish figure?), although I note with a bit of surprise that over a quarter have yearly scanning downstairs, which seems to be higher than I would have expected, especially in light of an article by Rebecca K Green I read on Japan Today reporting that only 3% of women have mammograms, yet here 15.6% say they have had mammograms, and even more have had ultrasound checks, although of course the same people could be getting both examinations.

There’s also the other issues that yearly breast cancer checks are, according to UK calculations, not cost-effective (although it’s a difficult thing to cost), and that testicular and prostate cancer get almost zero coverage, even though they can be just as deadly.

iShare performed this survey at the start of October where 1,525 users (52.9% female, ages from teenagers to those in their forties) of the CLUB BBQ mail service responded about their use of Social Network Services (SNS) and other web-based introduction services. In Japan, the term deai-kei, 出会い系 site, dating-related site, has a slightly dodgy meaning, I think, so perhaps that caused some of the respondents to be more reserved about their answers to the questions. There is also the suggestion of enjo-kousai associated with deai-kei, a Japanese euphemism for child prosititution, basically. SNS is not quite so well-known a term, so there is maybe not yet any particular stigma attached to it. However, I don’t know how much, or even whether or not, of a dating scene there might be at these SNS sites.

Also note that percentages listed to one decimal place are accurate figures, but those without decimal places are read directly off the graphs so are a bit inaccurate. Money also features in many of the surveys, as there are various rumours about gold-diggers and others out to scam people on dating sites.

Q1: Have you used a dating web site service?

Yes	18.7%
No	81.3%

Q2: For those of you that answered Yes in Q1, what was the outcome? (Choose one only)

Met in real-life and became friends	31.4%
Didn’t meet anyone	26.0%
Didn’t meet, but became e-mail friends	19.5%
Met in real-life and became lovers	10%
Met in real-life but was disappointed	5%
It got messy…	2%
Got money	0%

The various Social Network Services like mixi and GREE can be considered as “dating sites” in a rather broad sense. However, without an invitation from an existing member, these SNSes cannot be used.

Those in their twenties are the biggest user groups of SNSes, and of those who have heard about them but not got invitations, 31.4% of men and 38.5% of women have instead used dating sites. It looks as if there are lonely friendless people who are using dating sites for blind dates.

Q3: Which of the following applies to you regarding SNS like Mixi, GREE, etc?

	Currently using SNS	Used to use SNS	Know what they are, but never got an invite	Know what they are, but don’t think I want to use them	Don’t know the term SNS
10-19 year olds	15%	1%	3%	20%	59.7%
20-29 year olds	32.0%	2%	5%	22%	37.1%
30-39 year olds	21%	2%	4%	20%	50.5%
40-49 year olds	12%	2%	6%	20%	60.3%

It seems men more than women want to check out dating sites advertised in the spam they may receive, especially if the risk of fraud and the like from unsolicited mail is mitigated. Also, as men get older, the more likely they are to click on the dodgy links in spam mail; the older you get, the lonelier it is!

Q4: Have you ever clicked on a URL in unsolicited mail that you thought was for a dating site?

	Yes
Men 10-19 years old	14.3%
Men 20-29 years old	20.0%
Men 30-39 years old	20.5%
Men 40-49 years old	26.6%
Women 10-19 years old	3.3%
Women 20-29 years old	7.7%
Women 30-39 years old	9.2%
Women 40-49 years old	6.1%

Q5: For those who haven’t used one, do you want to try a dating site?

	Want to use	If there is no danger, I want to use	Don’t want to use	Can’t really say
Men 10-19 years old	0%	22%	58.5%	20%
Men 20-29 years old	4%	20%	61.6%	15%
Men 30-39 years old	1%	20%	71.2%	12%
Men 40-49 years old	0%	22%	63.9%	18%
Women 10-19 years old	0%	20%	71.4%	15%
Women 20-29 years old	1%	12%	78.1%	10%
Women 30-39 years old	1%	11%	83.0%	7%
Women 40-49 years old	1%	11%	83.0%	7%

Looking at those who have used dating sites, again it seems that loneliness is the main factor. Considering that those in their thirties are the heaviest users, and that is the age people get the urge to marriage, there seems a distict correlation. Speaking personally, most of the dating site spam I get seems more to do with bored housewives and prostitutes, not people looking for marriage!

Q: Why do/did you access the dating site?

	10-19 year olds	20-29 year olds	30-39 year olds	40-49 year olds
Want a lover	9.1%	2.1%	23.9%	7.9%
Want to “play”	9.1%	12.8%	8.5%	11.1%
Lonely	27.3%	4.3%	7.0%	0.0%
Want a mail friend	27.3%	27.7%	25.4%	44.4%
Want to banter with someone	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Just had some free time	27.3%	31.9%	19.7%	15.9%
Want to share hobbies	0.0%	14.9%	14.1%	17.5%
Want money	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Others	0.0%	6.4%	1.4%	3.2%

Another fun translation task. I liked how they used さみしい, samishii rather than さびしい, sabishii for lonely, a rather cute girly spelling of the word, even when they were describing middle-aged men.

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

NTV did a survey on a number of hot topics in the news right now – a lot of questions, but not much detail, so the exact meaning of some of the answers is up for debate. They carries out the survey from the 14th to 16th of this month, asking 1000 people but only getting 479 sets of replies, so it’s a bit of a small sample.

Q11: The Food Safety Commission presented a report that USA beef imports were basically safe, and would want to see imports restarted. Do you support resuming USA beef imports?

Support	43.0%
Don’t support	49.3%
Don’t know, no answer	7.7%

Q12: Rakuten has been buying TBS shares, and has proposed management integration. What do you think about TBS and Rakuten’s management integration?

By combining broadcast and (internet-based) transmission, I have expectations of new growth	20.5%
TBS’s side says it’s sudden, but I want to see change in the future	28.4%
I worry whether public (free-to-air?) broadcast will continue	28.8%
Others	4.6%
Don’t know, no answer	17.8%

Q13: Yoshiaki Murakami, against the wishes of the Hanshin Railways management ranks, in order to raise the company valuation, has proposed to float the subsiduary Hanshin Tigers baseball team on the stock market. Do you support this proposal?

Support	21.7%
Oppose	55.3%
Don’t know, no answer	23.0%

This is a question that frurstrates me a bit – I know the majority seem opposed to the idea, but why? Is there a general opposition to the idea of floating sports teams on the stock market, or is there opposition to Murakami personally, or is it just reluctance in the face of rapid change?

Q14: Tatsunori Hara has been appointed the new manager of the Giants baseball team. Do you think baseball will become interesting next year?

I think it will become interesting	49.7%
I don’t think it will become interesting	34.2%
Don’t know, no answer	16.1%

There seems an implication in this question that this year’s weak Giants automatically made the season dull. Although they are the top team in terms of support in Japan, the question seems loaded to me.

Q15: Do you think the Japanese economy will continue to improve?

I think so	36.5%
I don’t think so	55.7%
Don’t know, no answer	7.7%

Finished! A bit of a mixed bag there, but interesting opinions on quite a few of the burning issues. Thanks for reading all the way through.

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

UPDATE: This is an updated version of the original story, as I ended up with a stupidly high ranking in MSN Search and was getting far too many hits from dubious searchs! I also had an email about the article from DIMSDRIVE research, and I felt that the tone of the original article could be perceived as tarnishing the reputation of that company, so I pulled the story and replaced it with this version.

Last month DIMSDRIVE research carried out this survey to find out what Japanese citizens wore during the long hot summer nights. The sample size was 6,904 people with just over 60% female.
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Since this blog, like many others, and like real life too, is littered with adverts, it might be useful to look at how the Japanese perceive advertising. This survey from goo Research attempted to address this issue. This survey was carried out amongst 2,147 people residing in Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures of Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba. It was performed as a real time survey using mobile phones, whatever that means. I think it means they just phoned mobile numbers from their survey group at random, so people could answer about their current surroundings.
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As someone who chews gum after almost every meal at home, the following survey from goo Research on usage in Japan is interesting to me. I suppose I could add comments on the dodgy state of Japanese teeth, but (a) I’ll resist the temptation, and (b) that sort of comment is often from Americans with unnaturally straight white gnashers. In addition I’ve received wonderful treatment from my Japanese dentist. So, back at the survey, they questioned 2,167 people from their private internet group at the end of August, and obtained the following results.

However, first I will explain a couple of terms. “Functional” gum means gum with medical or other beneficial claims associated with them, whether it be direct ones like some on the market with Xylitol, teeth whitening properties, non-smoking, or more vague claims about relieving dry throats or caffine-laced products. The TOKUHO mark is a stamp of approval by some government body to say the prduct thus stamped has been demonstrated to actually have the healthy properties that are claimed. With most (all?) brands of bottle gums, there is a book of small-sized Post-It Notes ™-like “disposal paper” included that is meant to be used for wrapping your used gum in.

Q: How often do you chew functional gum? (Sample size=2,167)

Almost daily	14.7%
About twice or thrice a week	15.2%
About once a week	12.1%
About twice or thrice a month	13.7%
Less than once a month	21.2%
Don’t chew functional gum	23.2%

Q: What is your reason for chewing functional gum? (Sample size=1,665; multiple answer)

Getting rid of bad breath after food, etc	55.5%
Cavity prevention	45.5%
Preventing tiredness	39.5%
Relaxation	34.0%
Just chew because it’s to hand (eg on top of desk, etc)	23.9%
Instead of cleaning teeth after meals, etc	23.3%
Prevent dry throat	7.4%
Others	3.7%

Q: What type of functional gum do you normally buy? (Sample size=1,665)

	All	Male	Female
Bottle type (loose tabs)	34.7%	36.0%	64.7%
Stick type	34.7%	43.9%	54.7%
Packaged tab type	34.7%	29.0%	73.6%

Q: After buying bottle type gum, how has your gum consumption changed? (Sample size=577)

Increased greatly	31.5%
Increased slightly	42.1%
Stayed about the same	23.6%
Decreased a little	0.2%
Decreased a lot	0.4%
I didn’t buy other gums before buying bottles	2.3%

Q: What do you use the “disposal paper” in the bottles for? (Sample size=577)

Throwing away the chewed gum	64.9%
As a memo pad	19.1%
Just throw it away without using it	10.4%
Didn’t know there was disposal paper inside	4.2%
Others	1.6%

Q: Do you check whether the gum has an effect when you buy it? (Sample size=2,167)

Always check	15.3%
Sometimes check	42.6%
Don’t really check	30.7%
Never check	11.4%

Q: Do you check whether the Tokuho mark is present when you buy gum (of any kind)? (Sample size=2,167)

Always check	4.7%
Sometimes check	22.1%
Don’t really check	44.2%
Never check	29.1%

Q: Do you check whether the Tokuho mark is present when you buy functional gum? (Sample size=1,665)

Always check	5.7%
Sometimes check	26.2%
Don’t really check	47.2%
Never check	21.0%