The two major metropolitan areas in Japan are Kanto, centred around Tokyo, and Kansai, centred around Osaka. Both areas have many distinct facets, so this goo Ranking looked at the differences between people in the Kansai and in Kanto.
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.
Kansai versus Kanto is like Glasgow versus London, just to put it into perspective. I’ve lived all my Japan life in Kansai, so it’s difficult for me to directly compare, but I get the impression that the Tokyo area is much colder for foreign residents than Kansai.
The preferences for dashi broth is something I have had direct experience of – a local soba (buckwheat noodles) restaurant was initally Kansai-style, with a light, clear broth, but for some reason they decided to go Kanto-style, resulting in something that tasted and looked like warmed-up soy sauce and almost undrinkably salty! That change lasted less than three months, presumably because they had far too many complaints!
Oh, and most of the people who get posted here from Kanto complain that Kansai cyclists are horrendous scoff-laws. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently, Marsh Inc performed a survey into online map searching, the results of which were reported by japan.internet.com.
Demographics
Between the 7th and 9th of January 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 1.3% in their teens, 18.7% 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.
Thinking about it, I don’t usually do map search – for Japanese-language searches, just entering the address into Google usually turns up a direct link to a map site or an official page with an embedded map, and for English-language searches Google usually inlines a map in the main results. The last time I directly searched was when I was going on holiday to Europe and wanted to get driving directions from Google Maps. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a bit of a curious survey from iShare, looking at various aspects of dreaming.
Demographics
Between the 10th and 15th of December 2009 571 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.7% of the sample were male, 32.4% in their twenties, 29.2% in their thirties, and 38.4% in their forties.
I’m not really sure if I dream in colour or black and white. I don’t really see many dreams these days, but I cannot really picture how I could tell what colour my dream was. Is this just me?
Oh, and “Do you dream in colour?” is a song I liked from Bill Nelson:
Between the 5th and 7th of January 2010 1,000 people who had sold items on Yahoo! Auction completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 0.5% in their teens, 13.6% in their twenties, 39.3% in their thirties, 31.6% in their forties, 12.0% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.
It does seem that sellers are quite busy, with over two in five selling at least once a month. I’d love to find out more about what they are selling and if they are doing it as a real business or just selling off books they’ve read and clothes they’ve got bored with. Have any of my readers had any experiences of Japan online auctions? Read the rest of this entry »
Computers and cell phones are making most of the respondents to this survey from iShare ill, with stiff shoulders and dry eye being the two most common symptoms of technostress.
Demographics
Between the 8th and 11th of December 2009 491 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.6% of the sample were male, 35.6% in their twenties, 27.5% in their thirties, and 36.9% in their forties.
I hardly ever get any particular complaint from using PCs or mobiles, except for tired eyes that go away after just a quick break.
Stiff shoulders (katakori) are, as far as I can determine, a typically Japanese response to stress where in the west it would probably be a headache or migraine. Dry eye, however, is I suspect (in my totally and utterly non-medical opinion) a reaction to overuse of eye drops. Attend any event from the cinema to the theatre and you’ll see lots of people topping up (replacing) their tears with various over-the-counter medicine. The big manufacturers even sell a junior eyedrop for children, but if your kid isn’t producing tears you should be seeing a doctor, not self-medicating! Read the rest of this entry »
Not being a member of the biggest SNS in Japan, mixi appli (ie applets), the subject of this survey from goo research and reported on by japan.internet.com, are a total unknown to me, but they appear to be widgets that one can decorate one’s mixi page with.
Demographics
Between the 21st and 25th of December 2009 1,085 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.
Between the 20th and 26th of November 2009 484 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.7% were male, 33.3% in their twenties, 32.2% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.
One that I was suprised and disappointed didn’t have a category of its own was calling your wife “mother”. Many Japanese seem to adopt this as soon as they have a kid, so I’d have liked to have had concrete data on this.
The most popular kinds of mildly-embarrassing nicknames were adding “-tan” or “-nyan” after names.
We don’t bother with suffixes or nicknames in this house, and adding “-chan” after names usually indicates a request for something is coming soon… Read the rest of this entry »
Macromill published their annual survey on new adults, looking at how the latest batch of twenty year olds look at themselves and their future
Demographics
Over the 21st and 22nd of December 2009 516 members of the Macromill monitor group who have recently or will soon be turning twenty thus eligible to attend a Coming of Age ceremony this weekend completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female.
The stereotypes of the herbivore boy and the carnivore girl make an appearance towards the end of this survey! In Q11, considering that most of the respondents are probably university students, under 20% being active in the pursuit of the opposite sex, especially given the commonly-held view that Japanese universities are not exactly the most taxing of institutions study-wise, does seem a rather low figure to me! Read the rest of this entry »
Macromill published their annual survey on new adults, looking at how the latest batch of twenty year olds look at themselves and their future
Demographics
Over the 21st and 22nd of December 2009 516 members of the Macromill monitor group who have recently or will soon be turning twenty thus eligible to attend a Coming of Age ceremony this weekend completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female.
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.
Thinking about number three for men, my mother slipped into our Christmas parcel my graduation photograph, which my wife found before I had a chance to shred it! Thanks Mum!
I’m curious about the love letters people couldn’t send – why would that be? Too soppy, too racey, or just writing them like a diary and were never meant to be sent? Read the rest of this entry »
Recently, Marsh Inc performed a survey into 
Here’s a bit of a curious survey from iShare, looking at various aspects of 
Last month I had a look at 
Computers and cell phones are making most of the respondents to this survey from iShare ill, with stiff shoulders and dry eye being the two most common symptoms of 
Not being a member of the biggest SNS in Japan, 
[
[
Subscribe to feed