世論 What Japan Thinks

With the Japanese summer comes Cool Biz (and Ultra Cool Biz), an energy-saving initiative where everyone is encouraged to turn their air conditioning to 28 degrees and wear lighter and more casual clothes in the office. Shiseido, a cosmetics company, conducted a survey into awareness of smells in the workplace to see, amongst other things, if sweat was a source of stress.

Demographics

Over the 27th and 28th of March 2013, 1,248 business persons living in Tokyo and Osaka and their surrounding areas were interviewed. The ages ranged from 20 to 59 years old, but no further information was provided.

I probably sweat the most in the office; my problem with commuting is usually far too cold a carriage!

This year I’m trying out Uniqlo’s AIRism underneath my work shirts. So far they feel great, and they stop my back sweat soaking into my shirt, but I’ll wait until it gets a lot hotter before delivering my final verdict. Its odour neutralising properties, however, are no match for my underarms!
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Sanno Institute of Management, a private university in Japan, recently conducted a survey looking at people entering employment in 2013 and their workplace life, with the report on japan.internet.com choosing to focus on SNS activities.

Demographics

500 new starts who attended a Sanno Management School Entering the Workplace Seminar held between the 27th of March and the 10th of April were asked to fill out a questionnaire. 463 people supplied valid answers, from which 324 people, or 70.0%, were male.

I use an SNS every day, and if I got a friend request on Facebook from my boss I wouldn’t be too bothered as I use Facebook for little more than food pictures.
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goo Ranking had an interesting survey on stereotypes of single people in their thirties and looking for love, for both women and men. Note that this time both sexes voted in both the surveys.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 5th of May 2013 1,088 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were male, 23.3% in their teens, 24.4% in their twenties, 25.5% in their thirties, and 26.8% in their forties; there was no-one older than 49 in this sample. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

As someone who was single for half my thirties, I can identify with a lot of them, in particular number 19 for the guys, which was one that did actually come true!
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Mobile Marketing Data Laboratory recently conducted a study into data packet congestion in LTE 4G networks in Tokyo. Packet congestion was defined in this survey as when on an LTE connection the web page under test – Yahoo! Japan’s top page was used – fails to completely load within 30 seconds.

Demographics(?)

Between the 10th and 14th of June 2013 the investigation team visited the six busiest stations on the Tokyo Yamanote line, choosing two spots on each to test, during both the morning peak period of 7 am to 9 am, and evening peak of 5 pm to 7 pm. 100 connections were made from each collection point, for a total of 1,200 tests for each phone.

Specifically, the stations and locations were Shinjuku South and East entrances, Ikebukuro in front of South ticket wicket and Seibu East entrance, Shibuya in front of Tamagawa ticket wicket and Hikarie entrance, Tokyo Yaesu Central entrance and Marunouchi North entrance, Shinagawa Minato South entrance and Central ticket wicket, and Shinbashi Kasumori entrance and SL Plaza. For the tests, au and SoftBank iPhone 5s tested out Apple connections, and Android was represented by docomo’s Xperia Z, au’s HTC J butterfly, and SoftBank’s Aquos Phone Xx.

Instead of a graph, here’s Shinbashi’s SL Plaza:

SL is the abbreviation used in Japan for Steam Locomotive, as you might have guessed!
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Despite Samsung being one of the best-selling smartphones in Japan, as this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into mobile phone and smartphone upgrades (the 8th time this survey has been conducted) revealed.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 5th of June 2013 1,054 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.6% of the sample were male, 0.4% in their teens, 7.5% in their twenties, 24.4% in their thirties, 33.9% in their forties, and 33.9% aged fifty or older. Although not stated, looking at the demographics it suggests a mobile phone-based questionnaire; Q1′s “none” is perhaps people with tablets only?

I’d have to go with being not interested in any in Q1SQ2. I went to a mobile shop a couple of days ago, and nothing feels right in my hand – either too big, too chunky, too slippery, too textured!
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Mi-te, an illustrated book community aimed at parents with pre-school children recently conducted a survey on traditional Japanese fairy tales.

Demographics

Between the 19th of February and 4th of March 2013 480 members of their 400,000 people-strong web site completed a members-only survey, accessible through both computers and mobile phones. 309 people used a computer, 190 a mobile devicce (obviously some used both), 120 people had an “iku-memo” (shared child-growth calendar. I would presume) and 19 a “yomi-log” (blog?), and 13 a photo-bee (photo album?). 97.7% of the respondents were female, 0.8% 20 years old or younger, 5.4% between 21 and 25 years old, 16.5% between 26 and 30 years old, 33.1% between 31 and 35 years old, 26.9% between 36 and 40 years old, 13.1% between 41 and 45 years old, and 4.2% aged 46 years old or more. Furthermore, the youngest child of 31.8% was zero years old, 20.4% was one year old, 9.8% was two years old, 12.5% was three years old, 7.5% was four years old, 4.2% was five years old, and 13.8% six or more years old. Finally, 55.8% had one child, 34.2% two children, 8.3% three children, and 1.7% four or more children.

Like many of the Western fairy tales, the stories have been considerably revised and cleaned up over the years. In Momotaro, for instance, the current story has Momotaro appearing from a peach and being adopted by an elderly couple; the original tale was that a spirit grants the old couple a wish, they ask for their youth back for one night, and Granny ends up pregnant with Momotaro…

I’ve linked below to translations of the various Japanese stories.
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After doing a nice positive look at Father’s Day, I’ll have to balance it out with a look by goo Ranking at useless husbands, specifically household tasks that wives are astonished by their husband’s inability to do.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 5th of May 2013 1,088 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were male, 23.3% in their teens, 24.4% in their twenties, 25.5% in their thirties, and 26.8% in their forties; there was no-one older than 49 in this sample. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample. Only the women in the sample were asked this question, and presumably only married women.

Out of the list, I do pretty much all of the list, although I’m not sure I could work the washing machine!
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With today being Father’s Day in Japan, I present an appropriate survey from goo Ranking looking at what presents Japanese men would be happy to receive on Father’s Day.

Demographics

Over the 4th and 5th of April 2013 1,101 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 23.3% in their teens, 25.2% in their twenties, 25.5% in their thirties, and 26.1% in their forties; there was no-one older than 49 in this sample. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Here’s a picture of number 22, a presentation six-pack of beer featuring a famous character from some businessman manga that I cannot quite recall the title of:

I’m not sure of the exact context of the question; goo Ranking tends to be multiple choice, so I suspect there might be an element of fathers not wanting to break the family budget by wishing for too much, or perhaps presents that are child pocket-money sized.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on goo Research’s 8th regular internet advertisements.

Research results

Between the 24th of May and the 3rd of June 2013 1,073 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, and 27.7% aged fifty or older.

Just the last week there were some banner ads I saw that I wanted to click. They were for English lessons to improve one’s listening (I wish I could find an example again!) and one that sticks in my mind was a bartender passing a cocktail and saying “Oh ****! You *** cu*** tw**.”
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japan.internet.com reported on an interesting survey from goo Research looking at smartphone and tablet game apps.

Demographics

Between the 28th and 30th of May 2013 1,098 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.0% of the sample were male, 13.4% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 17.3% in their forties, 14.8% in their fifties, and 17.9% aged sixty or older.

I have spent exactly zero yen on in-game purchases; the two games I play that have such features play perfectly well without any extra contributions.
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