世論 What Japan Thinks

With GPS becoming standard in most of the higher-end mobile phones these days, this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at GPS devices in general.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 29th of September 2009 1,023 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

I don’t have GPS on my rather old and low-end phone, but I cannot really say I desperately want any of the features listed in Q2SQ. A walking history might be nice, as a few phones these days also have pedometers, so recording not just your paces but also your speed and distance walked might be useful for tracking one’s exercise patterns. Location-based search in itself is not compelling, but add in functionality such as only showing your favourite genres of restaurants, highly-rated locations, or places with discount coupons and then it becomes more useful, although whether or not I’d use it is debatable!
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Call me old-fashioned or square, but I am glad that in Japan even minor body modifications such as simple ear studs are not that popular, as this recent survey from iShare into piercing confirms.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 10th of September 2009 516 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.2% of the sample were male, 33.9% in their twenties, 30.0% in their thirties, and 36.0% in their forties.

I’d like to know if the difference in Q2 of 24% to 8% is due to gender-based rules or due to the men and women in this survey working in different industries. Looking at my own employer’s rules, I cannot find a direct ban on piercings, but there are notes about gaudy earrings (and loud hair, etc) which suggest that anything more than a simple stud for guys would earn one a visit to the personel department.

I do occasionally see people with lip rings (yuk!), but I usually suspect they are just fake clip-ons, not real.
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Today is Health and Fitness Day in Japan, but as I don’t have any interesting sports-related surveys to hand, instead I’ll present a look by goo Research, in conjunction with President magazine, at married couples’ lifestyles.

Demographics

At some undefined point in time 3,208 married members of the goo Research monitor group aged between 40 and 69 completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample consisted of 1,602 husbands and 1,606 wives.

My wife does various internet-based questionnaires herself, and recently she showed me one user-generated poll asking a question to the effect of “What would you think if your spouse came up behind you and gave you a hug?” The most popular answers includes yelling, starting an argument, worrying that some bad news was coming, etc. Being happy about your spouse’s expression of love came very low down the list!
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Only time for a quicky today from goo Ranking, this time looking at what one looks back on with an embarrassed laugh.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of August 2009 1,077 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 8.4% in their teens, 14.2% in their twenties, 26.7% in their thirties, 28.2% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 11.2% 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.

Number one seems a bit of a contradiction, as being completely and utterly out of it by definition means that one cannot recall the incident! If I think about it, I can recall a number of incidents that would fit the bill for this survey, but as they’re embarrassing, I’m not telling you what they are!
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Recently there has been a lot of moral panic (some justified, some unjustified) about schoolkids and their mobile phone usage in Japan, with a number of schools introducing various bans on usage. To find out what kids are up to these days, MacroMill Inc looked at high school students and mobile phones.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 17th of September 2009 300 high school students (therefore aged between 15 and 18) completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female. Note that the sample will be over-represented by heavier mobile phone users, so perhaps the figures here for usage of mobile phones in class, for instance, are higher than they are in reality, or at least I hope that is the case.

As I know there are a few people who teach in Japanese schools amongst my readership, I’d love to hear from you on how the results of this survey fit with your experiences at the chalkface.

I find it quite amazing that more students use their phones in the bath than in class! However, the fact that almost one in six admit to using them regularly in class is a pretty depressing statistic.
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Japan has a million and one Days every year, with today, the 10th of October being marked as Moe Day, Look After Your Eyes Day, Fishing Day, Tuna Day, Tin Can Day, Public Bath Day, and no doubt many, many more. To investigate the awareness of these and other celebrations, iShare looked at October Days.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 24th of September 2009 591 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.9% of the sample were male, 34.9% in their twenties, 30.3% in their thirties, and 34.9% in their forties.

Moe, or 萌え in Japanese, is basically the love of cute animation or video game characters, which for me has undertones of unhealthy obsession, and its broad acceptance within Japan is one aspect of the country that I do not like at all. As to why today is Moe Day, let’s look more closely at how the 10th of October and Moe are written in kanji:

As to why the other Days fall on today, I am at a loss to tell you why, except for Public Bath Day. 10th October is 10/10, or 1010, or one thousand and ten, which can be pronunced in Japanese as sen-tou, which is also the pronuciation for 銭湯, public bath. I’m quite proud of myself for working that one out. Finally, 10th of October used to be Health and Sports Day, but from 2000 they moved it to the second Monday in October.

萌（♡´∀`♡）え
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My wife’s especially bad, and it’s rubbed off on me now, for cleaning out the shampoo, shoe shine clothes, laundry bags and all other freebies in a hotel room, so I was keen to see this survey from iShare on hotel amenities to see what the average Japanese thinks about such activity.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 17th of September 2009 506 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.1% of the sample were male, 36.4% in their twenties, 28.1% in their thirties, and 35.6% in their forties.

In case you’re wondering what Fremantle is doing in the headline, it’s a word that’s stuck in my brain ever since I read The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams back when I was in school. I’d be interested to know if any of my readers know the word.
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Having looked last week at how people are economising in general, today I’m looking at a survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into saving money on food.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 25th of June 2009 9,685 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 1.1% in their teens, 12.3% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 7.3% aged sixty or older.

My eating at home has definitely increased the last year, and most of the saving money has been from buying pre-prepared salad from the supermarket rather than from one of the delicatessans in a department store.

In the final question, bean sprouts coming out as the most common cheap food highlights how much people are struggling. I can understand tofu, chicken and cabbage being popular substitutes for more expensive ingredients, but bean sprouts suggests desperation to me.
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Gender might have been a more correct word to use in the headline, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have got so many click-throughs! This recent survey from iShare looked at the interesting, but not as saucy as the title might suggest, topic of desired gender of bosses in Japan.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 15th of September 2009 555 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.1% of the sample were male, 35.1% in their twenties, 30.8% in their thirties, and 34.1% in their forties.

I’ve had my share of bosses of both sexes in Japan, and I can say that all bar one of the male bosses were awful. I don’t know whether it is the company training practices, promotion scheme, or just that most of them worked for or under others at some point and the uselessness rubbed off. The common faults in all their management styles are an inability to delegate meaningfully, presumption of their own correctness (reinforced by Japan’s sempai-kohai relationship) to the extent of ignoring differing opinions, and the ability to drone on at length on random subjects at the drop of a hat. Oh, and just in case my current male boss is reading, yes, that includes you too.
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A recent survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into the topic of web-based email amongst a young female demographic found almost a majority had a Yahoo! email account.

Demographics

On the 28th of September 2009 300 female members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 24.3% of the sample were in their twenties, 46.3% in their thirties, and 29.3% in their forties,

I did once try to recommend Gmail to my wife by sending her an invitation, but she never took me up, despite telling her about its excellent support for emoji!
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