世論 What Japan Thinks

Well, some of the words in the list have an even longer pedigree, but most of the ones in this list from goo Ranking of Showa era (1925-1989) words that people don’t know the meaning of.

Demographics

On the 19th of November 2009 1,166 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.9% of the sample were female, 13.4% in their teens, 20.6% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 23.2% in their forties, 8.3% in their fifties, and 6.3% aged sixty or older.

This survey will be of most interest to students of the Japanese language, although I hope others can also enjoy it.

For these students of the language, I used a rather good online Japanese slang dictionary (note, Japanese only) as reference for the meaning of a few of the words.

It’s a bit of a curious twist that the only word I (and probably most of my readers) recognise is the number one unrecognised word, kimosabe!
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One of my most popular posts of 2009 was this list of male fetishes, so I was glad to see that goo Ranking finally got round to posting women’s secret fetishes.

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. Naturally, only the women answered this survey.

The previous survey got a few comments on the lack of more racy fetishes and how many of the options were not much more than turn-ons, so to answer these criticisms, first note that goo Research does try to keep things family-friendly, and second, that’s the Japanese language for you! The English word fetish when imported into Japanese loses a lot of its strength.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this list too. There’s some quite strange items here, starting from number two… One new word, let alone fetish, for me was Adam’s apple, which in Japanese is のど仏, nodo botoke, or throat Buddha.
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With more and more web sites supporting the use of icons to represent users (including this site and the Gravaters) in the comments, there is perhaps more opportunities to display an avatar, the subject of this survey from iShare.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 25th of December 2009 505 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.2% of the sample were male, 38.8% in their twenties, 27.9% in their thirties, and 33.3% in their forties.

I’d have liked to have seen a question on whether people prefer to use an avatar that looks like them or just an actual photo. Looking at my Google Friend Connect (see the bottom of the right sidebar) set of icons, I see the vast majority are actual photos and there might be just one that is a look-alike image (), but since Japanese on the whole feel resistance to revealing names, one cannot make assumptions about Japanese avatar usage based on my primarily western set.

I’ve seen adverts somewhere for generating an avatar based on a photograph you send them, but I’ve not looked into the price.
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One of the highlights of New Year shopping in Japan is buying a fukubukuro, which literally translates to “lucky bag”, so goo Research conducted a survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, on this very subject.

Demographics

Between the 6th and 11th of January 2010 1,089 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

My lucky bag purchasing this year was limited as usual to a Mr Donuts one. For 1,000 yen I got my own selection of any ten doughnuts or pies, plus a wall calendar, a Pon-De-Ring lion cellphone strap, a blanket, and a Honey Shippo squirrel stuffed toy. They used to be better with a plate or mug and a diary, however.

I also managed to sell two Strapya Fukubukuro – hurry, there’s still some left!

Oh, and in Q1SQ2 I’d love to know who spent over a million yen on a fukubukuro over the internet.
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In a survey on mobile phones from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, they looked in particular in cleaning the screen, a subject that I have actually covered over two years ago.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 24th of December 2009 1,070 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 15.7% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 16.1% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

I too most often wipe my mobile screen on my sleeve, despite having a mascot screen cleaner dangling from my phone. The screen cleaner does a better job, of course, but one good wipe on my sleeve after a phone call is far quicker!
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This recent survey from iShare into web browsers contains some fascinating and surprising data on preferences amongst a quite experienced sample of internet surfers.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 17th of December 2009 468 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.3% of the sample were male, 33.3% in their twenties, 34.6% in their thirties, and 32.1% in their forties.

As you can see from Q1, most of the sample have over 10 years of web use under their belts, yet although one associates Internet Explorer with newbies and Firefox with experts, the data shows Explorer about a third ahead of Firefox.

Sleipnir is basically a new skin for Internet Explorer, but it does seem quite popular in my office, and Lunascape is a three-in-one Internet Explorer plus Firefox plus Google Chrome/Safari.

Of course, Opera is the best web browser by far.
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Recently goo Research looked at television in a survey reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 16th of December 2009 1,061 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I’ve just got a rather old tube-based television at home, and the wife has a One Seg mobile phone, but she only watches it once in a blue moon, especially as it doesn’t have an external aerial so even when perfectly still it’s difficult to get a signal, and it’s almost unwatchable on the train.

Built-in televisions in bathrooms are a great gimmick that I could be persuaded to go for, even though my eyesight’s so bad I don’t think I could see anything if we were to get one!

Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, yes, Japanese televisions are measured in inches.
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With Avatar in 3D in the cinemas and doing rather well, and a big push from television makers towards getting 3D into the living room, I’m surprised that it’s taken quite this long for a survey on 3D to appear.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 7th of December 2009 541 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.6% of the sample were male, 35.1% in their twenties, 28.75 in their thirties, and 36.2% in their forties.

I went to see Up (or “Old Man Carl’s House Flies in the Sky”, as it was rendered in Japanese) in 3D and the glasses were rather uncomfortable, and I had to spend periods of time holding them away from the bridge of my nose as they hurt. I also failed to appreciate any 3D whatsoever, except for background blurring in one or two scenes. I later went to see Avatar in 2D as I didn’t fancy another two and half hours of the specs.
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Here’s another quickie as I tidy up a bunch of goo Ranking surveys clogging up my inbox. This time they looked at what happenings may you think it’s going to be a good day.

Demographics

On the 19th of November 2009 1,166 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.9% of the sample were female, 13.4% in their teens, 20.6% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 23.2% in their forties, 8.3% in their fifties, and 6.3% aged sixty or older.

My lucky event would have to be getting on the train to find the only empty seat is the end of a row. Or perhaps having a cute woman sitting beside me on the train fall asleep on my shoulder, but don’t tell my wife I said that…
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“Gap moe” is a new term on me, but it seems to refer to a contradiction in exhibited characteristics that people find cutely attactive in the opposite sex. goo Ranking has a look at moments where people feel “gap moe”, with women on men’s gap moe and men on women’s gap moe.

Demographics

On the 19th of November 2009 1,166 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.9% of the sample were female, 13.4% in their teens, 20.6% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 23.2% in their forties, 8.3% in their fifties, and 6.3% aged sixty or older.

I cannot really think of anything fitting to add to this survey…
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