世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s a fun survey from goo Ranking, looking at what white lies people can’t help telling to members of the opposite sex for both women lying to men and men lying to women.

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.
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Most mobile phones in Japan these days support not just static wallpaper, but also Flash-based animations, although the report by japan.internet.com on this survey from Point On Research into mobile phone wallpaper didn’t actually give any information on the uses of such animations, as the focus was on still pictures.

Demographics

On the 29th of September 2009 exactly 800 members of the Point On research monitor group completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 25.0% in their teens, 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.0% in their forties.

Q1 indicates a very curious demographic; the usual percentages for au and SoftBank are about 30% and 20%, but here we have a huge variation. Does their questionnaire web site not correctly operate on many SoftBank phones? Did SoftBank fail to deliver the request to participate in the survey?
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In the twelveth regular survey into electronic cash, conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com, it is now not just credit card electronic cash that has passed the 50% penetration mark, but also mobile phones have reached that milestone, although the majority of the mobile phone contactless IC chips are lying idle.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 30th of September 2009 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, and 27.5% aged fifty or older.

I don’t have an electronic cash-capable phone, but I recently bit the bullet and went for a smart card-based season ticket plus electronic cash functionality (Hankyu Stacia) and I must say it’s rather handy, although they have a horrendously unnecessarily complicated dual (could even be triple) parallel point system, although on my very first statement I got no points at all…
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Here is the second installment of a very interesting series of surveys from goo Research into mobile devices, as reported on by japan.internet.com. I translated the first installment last month.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 18th of September 2009 1,095 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16/8% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.2% aged fifty or older.

I used to be extremely excited about the new Sharp NetWalker – what’s not to love about the form factor of an electronic dictionary (A5-sized), running Linux, 10 hour battery life, high resolution touch screen, etc, etc. Well, after a play with it in the shops, the keyboard are closer to buttons than keys so have a dreadful feel, there’s a huge dead area around the screen, the touch pad is microscopic and the mouse buttons are under the left hand, 10 hours battery life is measured with minimum brightness and no sound, and the biggest killer, 45,000 yen price tag (40,000 yen if you shop around), or about 450 US dollars or 280 UK pounds. For less than that I can pick up any number of netbooks, and I’m off to the US at the end of the month so $320 for an Acer Aspire One delivered straight to my hotel room from Amazon sounds like a plan.
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Even though consumer prices have dropped 2.4% over the last year, consumer spending is flat here, so this recent survey from MyVoice into consumption attitudes in Japan is very timely. Also, today I read an interesting article on Observing Japan about amongst other things how Keynesian economics says consumption is the key to economic growth, but after ten years of uncertainty in Japan, how can the DPJ pry open people’s wallets?

Demographics

Over the first five days of September 2009 14,139 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 34% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 20% aged fifty or older.

I’m all too aware of cutting back and delaying spending, not helped by having a 30% cut in bonuses in the summer, which meant that there was very little money left over after paying the bonus portion of the mortgage. Our home washing machine is liable to conk out at any moment with the drum disintegrating, the buttons losing their responsiveness, and the spin cycle making funny noises, but… The rice cooker pot is also way past replacement time, and the microwave’s been a bit dodgy too… If only I had ten times as many visitors I could easily pay it all off! Anyone want to buy an advertisement on What Japan Thinks?
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The government of Japan may have changed, but the Cabinet Office Japan surveys are carrying on – it’ll be interesting to see if I can detect a change in tone in the questions. This survey was entitled a built environment for pedestrians, but also covered most other local transport means.

Demographics

Between the 16th of July and the 2nd of August 2009 5,000 members of the public were selected at random to complete the survey; 3,157 people, or 63.1%, agreed to cooperate. 54.4% of this sample were female, 7.8% in their twenties, 14.3% in their thirties, 17.1% in their forties, 19.8% in their fifties, 23.4% in their sixties, and 17.6% aged seventy or older. Additionally, 46.1% were employed, 11.6% were self-employed, 3.0% were home workers, and 39.3% were unemployed, including students and housewives, who made up 60.9% of that 39.3%. Finally, 47.8% drove some form of motorised transport almost every day, 15.7% several times a week, 7.3% several times a month, 8.3% had a licence but didn’t drive, and 20.9% did not have a licence.

For me, to walk or cycle to the shops involves traversing an exceptionally steep hill and a bit of pavement-free road, whereas instead my train season ticket allows me to hop on a train and ride one stop down the line to get right into my suburban town centre.
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The government of Japan may have changed, but the Cabinet Office Japan surveys are carrying on – it’ll be interesting to see if I can detect a change in tone in the questions. This survey was entitled a built environment for pedestrians, but also covered most other local transport means.

Demographics

Between the 16th of July and the 2nd of August 2009 5,000 members of the public were selected at random to complete the survey; 3,157 people, or 63.1%, agreed to cooperate. 54.4% of this sample were female, 7.8% in their twenties, 14.3% in their thirties, 17.1% in their forties, 19.8% in their fifties, 23.4% in their sixties, and 17.6% aged seventy or older. Additionally, 46.1% were employed, 11.6% were self-employed, 3.0% were home workers, and 39.3% were unemployed, including students and housewives, who made up 60.9% of that 39.3%. Finally, 47.8% drove some form of motorised transport almost every day, 15.7% several times a week, 7.3% several times a month, 8.3% had a licence but didn’t drive, and 20.9% did not have a licence.

I have a licence but rent a car about once every two months or so, so I don’t really know where I would fall in the demographic question above. I also managed to get a fixed penalty parking fine (15,000 yen!) last weekend, but that’s another story.

My commute is train only – my home is one minute from the station, work is two minutes away at the other end, so I cannot see any point in having a car.
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goo Ranking recently took a look at what people would want to check out the first time they visited their partner’s room, for both women checking out their boyfriends and men checking out their girlfriends.

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.

It is interesting to note that many of the answers seem to centre around checking out that your partner is not already attached – I don’t really know what the motivation for that is.

I also haven’t a clue what’s behind sniffing your partner’s pillow, and I don’t really think I want to know!

As a cross-reference, perhaps, last year I looked at scary home life of friends of the opposite sex.
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This month’s 48th regular survey into mobile phone upgrade needs by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked specifically at what features people look for in a new mobile phone.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 11th of September 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor group completed an online questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were female, 1.0% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 34.7% in their thirties, 29.5% in their forties, and 19.0% aged fifty or older.

The original Japanese article’s headline was that four in ten teenagers want a waterproof mobile phone, but because the statistic is completely accurate according to this sample, it is highly inaccurate, as there was only ten teenagers in the whole sample, so the margin of error is vast! However, the trend for older people being more interested in water resistance is valid, and is perhaps a reflection on clumsiness increasing with age!

In Q2, one obvious (from a Western phone user point of view, I think) missing feature is synchronisation with calendar or address book applications; Bluetooth support suggests just wireless headphones to me as few Japanese computers come with built-in support. Unfortunately, there’s no “What USA Thinks” or “What UK Thinks” web site for me to cross-reference against, although if any of my readers have data, I’d love to hear it. Also in Q2, you’ll note that the iPhone has only four of the top ten features and none of the top three, whereas most of the higher-end Japanese phones have at least seven of them.
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I want someday learn how to write Japanese well, as do most Japanese themselves, according to the results of this recent survey from iShare into handwriting.

Demographics

Between the 27th of August and the 1st of September 2009 545 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.5% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 29.2% in their thirties, and 36.1% in their forties.

Having said that I want to learn how to write Japanese neatly, perhaps first I should actually learn how to write in English, as I do have a horrendous scrawl, which does become legible to a degree if I slow down.

When it comes to making notes at meetings or sketching ideas out, etc, I nearly always use paper first, however, as even though I have a reasonably good typing speed, I can write and listen at the same time during meetings, and for ideas, underlining things on paper, inserting words, expanding concepts always seems far more dynamic on paper, and easier to follow than just raw, perfect text.
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