世論 What Japan Thinks

iShare once again take an interesting look at a corner of Japanese life, this time the matter of fortune telling.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 14th of January 2010 567 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.0% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, and 34.6% in their forties.

I must say I was surprised at how low the percentage of blood type believers were – I would have guessed that the majority believed, but perhaps it’s just that blood type is just an easy conversation starter, the equivalent of “What’s your sign?”
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It’s coming up to Valentine’s Day, which in Japan means that women buy gifts for men, on the whole, not only for their true love (or object of affection) but also for men at work, although with Valentine’s Day falling on a Sunday this year, chocolate companies are hurting. So, today’s survey from Yahoo! Japan Value Insight is all about St Valentine’s Day.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 10th of January 2010 400 women between the ages of 20 and 39 resident within Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 100% were women, and 25.0% were aged between 20 and 24 years old, 25.0% between 25 and 29, 25.0% from 30 to 24, and 25.0% from 35 to 39.

The best chocolates I’ve received have been B.B. Chocolat Premier (hmm, they don’t seem to have an official web page), as I do like the look of them, which is just as important, if not more, that the actual taste on Valentine’s Day.
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It’s been a while since I’ve posted the results of a survey on QR Codes (these two-dimensional bar code things) but this one from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com is worth the wait.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 24th of January 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 2.7% in their teens, 17.3% 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.

A number of PC internet-targetted services – Yahoo! Maps springs to mind, and I think I’ve seen them for hotel bookings – display a QR Code that contains a URL that summarises the data on display in a mobile-friendly format. They also offer an option to email the URL to a mobile, but perhaps people worry about submitting their mobile email address and ending up being a spam target.

My two “Other” places for reading a QR Code was from a friend’s corporate PC inventory tag and from my health insurance card, just to see what information was encoded in both places.
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Palm reading is, of course, a load of nonsense based around cold reading, but regardless I felt this recent survey from goo Ranking looking at what lines people don’t want to have on their palms was worth translating just for the names of some of the lines that I suspect might have been made up just for the sake of the survey…

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of December 2009 1,077 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were female, 8.7% in their teens, 15.3% in their twenties, 27.0% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.9% 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.

I find it quite amusing that the bottom of the list is the pervy line, perhaps there ought to be a follow-up survey on what lines people wish they had. The original Japanese article describes exactly where each line can be found should you really wish to check your own hand.

The photo to the right is used with kind permission from Lee at Tokyo Times. It shows a street palm reader – in the evenings around most major stations you can usually find one or two of them plying their trade. Please click through to the original posting to see the image full size.
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Here’s a fun look with goo Ranking at what moments people feel their age, for both women and men.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of December 2009 1,077 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were female, 8.7% in their teens, 15.3% in their twenties, 27.0% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.9% 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.

For me it has to be when I first realised I was older than all the current Formula 1 drivers! The other occasional moment is when I catch some UK TV and see some person I haven’t seen for a good number of years and notice that they’ve aged.
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Here’s an interesting look with iShare at driving, looking in particular at poor driving habits.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 7th of January 2010 495 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.4% of the sample were male, 33.5% in their twenties, 31.9% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

In Q2SQ1 the issue of “paper drivers” is highlighted – paper drivers is a Japanese expression (it’s actually the English words that are used) that indicates people who are qualified on paper but never actually do much if any driving. I’m probably borderline paper myself as my driving is limited to renting a car just a handful of times every year.

In Q2SQ2, I wonder if we can assume that the 25% who drive to the speed limit are regular speeders? On empty motorways I might occasionally wander one or two kilometres per hour over the limit, but on busy urban highways and surface streets I do usually run just a little bit under the limit and I certainly do always maintain my distance from the car in front.
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For a change, this recent survey from iShare into music downloading laws found a significant number willing to admit their thievery.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 8th of January 2010 443 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.7% of the sample were male, 30.7% were in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, and 38.6% in their forties.

As I’m not the sort of person who downloads music willy-nilly just for the sake of filling up their iPod, I’ve never downloaded more than just a dodgy track or two. I’m probably also being a fuddy-duddy by saying that the iPod and said illegal downloading just because one can is a behaviour I cannot condone in the slightest, and I’m sure in some way contributes towards the youth of today having the attention span of a goldfish. I used to play just the one CD or tape for about a week or more, but when I last had my hands on a SonyPod, I found myself filling it up with all my CDs then spending more time skipping than listening. Oh, and the software was useless and at least twice wiped its own database.

Anyway, back to the survey. This month the law has changed such that downloading illegally uploaded contents is now illegal.
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With Windows 7 just two months old, this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into home computers, looking in particular at Windows 7, found over 10% of users had already adopted it.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 19th of January 2010 1,087 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private intenet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.8% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I run Windows Vista on my desktop and Windows XP on my netbook, but I have no intention of upgrading either the netbook as it probably doesn’t have the horsepower to make much difference, or the desktop as we need the Ultimate pack to support a separate language for each user.
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iShare recently published a curious set of results from a survey they conducted into nameplates outside Japanese homes.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 22nd of December 2009 531 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.2% of the sample were male, 33.3% in their twenties, 34.3% in their thirties, and 32.4% in their forties.

One interesting fact I recently learnt about Google Street View Japan is that in responce to claims about privacy infringement, as well as blurring out faces and car registration plates as they do elsewhere, they also blanked out nameplates for Japan only.
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Recently there was a rather unfocused article by japan.internet.com on a survey conducted by goo Research into home electrical appliances that didn’t really reveal anything interesting, so pleae feel free to browse to another page… This is apparently the third in a series of regular surveys on the topic.

Demographics

If you’re still here, I’ll inform you that between the 21st and 25th of December 2009 1,076 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

The biggest surprise in Q1 is that although 69.9% have a portable computer (although previous surveys have shown that they don’t tend to get ported much), just 7.0% have a netbook. On the other hand, it’s not really a surprise since computers don’t get carried around there’s no motivation to get a lighter netbook.

Furthermore, the selection of ETC electronic toll payment devices seems a bit of stretch as a domestic appliance…
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