世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently reported on a very interesting survey conducted by goo Research into mobile devices, their very first in a new series of monthly surveys.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 6th of August 2009 1,087 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a computer internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 17.3% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, and 27.3% in their fifties.

You’ll notice that as well as netbooks there are also UMPCs, or Ultra-Mobile Personal Computers and MIDs, Mobile Internet Devices. A survey from earlier this year contained an explanation of the differences between netbooks and UMPCs, and MIDs seem to be the halfway house between a smartphone and a netbook or UMPC. Oh, and a PND appears to be a Personal Navigation Device, or a GPS-based route-mapping device.

I also think that Q1 should have included the iPod Touch.

I don’t carry anything other than a dumb phone, but I want to buy a netbook some time… I used to be interested in getting a Japan manufacturer-built Android-based mobile, but I’m going off the idea a bit.
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One traditional form of finding a member of the opposite sex is the group dating party thing, or the 合コン, go-kon in Japanese, where a group of usually three of four guys and girls go out and things may or may not develop. goo Ranking took a look at what sort of activities from fellow guys at go-kons irritate them. Hopefully there will later be the femal equivalent survey.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of July 2009 1,026 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 48.2% of the sample were male, 8.0% in their teens, 14.6% in their twenties, 28.8% in their thirties, 26.0% in their forties, 12.5% in their fifties, and 10.1% 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.

I’ve been to a go-kon exactly once, organised by a colleague from the guys side and a female friend of his from another division of the company. Six of us went out for a meal, and absolutely nothing happened, mostly because the other five were just as socially inept as me.

Note that as suggested by answer 15, people in relationships, even some married people, go along to these parties for innocent reasons such as making up the numbers.
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Here’s a nice survey from iShare looking at hangovers.

Demographics

Between the 28th and 31st of July 551 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.4% of the sample were male, 38.7% in their twenties, 27.2% in their thirties, and 34.1% in their forties.

I’ve heard a number of people say good things about Ukon no Chikara and other tumeric-based hangover avoidance techniques, but I’ve not tried it myself.

The Japanese for hangover is 二日酔い, futsukayoi, literally “two days drunk”, which I think is a great expression! I’ve never had a three days drunk experience, but I’m surprised that only less than half the drinkers have had a “never again!” experience.
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Following on from yesterday’s look at using a mobile phone as a wristwatch, this time Marsh Inc looked at using a mobile as an alarm clock in a survey reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 30th of July and the 1st of August 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, with 2.0% in their teens, 18.0% 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.

I use an alarm clock, I recently received one for my birthday, a cat-themed one that is insulated enough not to tick, but screams out in Japanese in the morning “GET UP! MEOWWWW! IT’S TIME! MEOWwwww! GET UP!” and rather than a lever to batter it into silence, I need to fiddle with a recessed switch, and as I turn it off it screams again “YOU’VE GOT UP, PERHAPS?” I should record it tomorrow and upload a movie…
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Here’s a curious look at iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into wristwatches.

Demographics

On the 4th of August 2009 300 members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group who were currently employed or students completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 73.7% of the sample were male, 15.7% in their twenties, 33.0% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 19.0% in their fifties, and 1.7% in their sixties.

I have a watch, but only wear it at weekends, as during weekdays at work there are more than enough clocks in the office or the railway station, so why bother? It’s also a watch I got free for Air Miles that has had all its rhinestones fall out and its sky-blue fake leather strap is not really fitting for the business environment, and anyway it gets in the way when I type.
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In the past I have looked at women-only carriages, but this time I present a survey from iShare looking at train groping and men-only carriages.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 15th of July 2009 543 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.5% of the sample were male, 33.3% were in their twenties, 31.5% in their thirties, and 35.2% in their forties.

I’m not in favour of men-only carriages (although I strongly support women-only) as I’m not really sure they’d change anything; I’d love to know why people wanted them, as surely it cannot just be due to the fear of being misidentified as a groper.

For a sillier look at train segregation, here’s a ranking survey I translated previously.

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Following up on beach date FAIL, we have another survey from goo Ranking looking at what people don’t want to see from their partners during travel, for both women discussing their men and men discussing their women.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 24th of June 2009 1,180 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.6% of the sample were female, 10.3% were in their teens, 22.9% in their twenties, 31.5% in their thirties, 19.2% in their forties, 9.6% in their fifties, and 6.4% 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.

My pet hate on holiday is my wife taking far too many photos or videos whenever we visit palaces and the like, photos and videos that we ourselves will never watch again let alone give to someone else. I don’t mind her pinching all the shampoo from the hotel room, but I do mind her rather obsessive behaviour that extends to hiding half-empty bottles so that we’ll get new bottles the next day…

From her point of view, it’s my lack of planning – I’m pretty easy-going when it comes to holidays, so having a schedule makes it seem just a bit too much like work. I don’t know why on earth sleeping with her mouth open figures in the male list!
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With Twitter showing little sign of adoption in Japan, and TwitterPoli, a site tracking Japanese politicians’ Tweets, having just 10 local officals and 6 national politicians being tracked, this recent survey from MyVoice looking at local government Tweeting (and other related topics) seems a bit pointless, quite frankly.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 27th of July 2009 562 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.0% of the sample were male, 34.5% in their twenties, 32.9% in their thirties, and 32.6% in their forties.

What Japan Thinks can be found on Twitter; most of the content is just automated Tweeting of my posts, but two or three times a week or so I post one-liner survey translations that don’t make it to the main blog.

Note that the Twitter usage rate of 6.2% in this survey versus 2.3% in the previously-mentioned survey can be ascribed to iShare having a more technically-minded audience; the simple fact that the survey respondent pool comes from people using an email forwarding service demonstrates this.

The two local authorities mentioned in Q4 can be read on Twitter; the links are Aomori Prefectural Office (ooh, nice background!) and Hokkaido Rikubetsucho.

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This recent survey from MyVoice looked at the topic of detergents and soaps for washing clothes.

Demographics

Over the first five days of July 2009 15,060 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 19% aged fifty or older.

Q1 is a bit confusing as it doesn’t make clear how husbands should respond, given that I doubt that many married Japanese men actually ever turn on a washing machine. Even I don’t do washing, although at weekends I always help with the hanging out and folding up. Given 46% of the sample being male and 22.6% of the sample not washing clothes themselves, that’s at worst roughly half the men don’t wash clothes. Given that MyVoice’s monitor group’s overall demographics are 55.6% married, then it is probable that the vast majority of the 22.6% on non-washers are husbands, and the rest perhaps children at home, those in dormitories, and those who send everything off to the cleaners. As a translation note, Q1 directly asks about the respondent himself or herself, but Q2 expands to cover the whole family.
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On my recent post on buttering up your Japanese wife I had a question from Galerius about pocket money, so I decided to look up about how much Japanese men get each month. In two in three married couples it is the wife who controls the family budget (see Q8) and she gives her husband an allowance each month to cover his lunch, after-work drinking and other incidental expenses. So, I found a pair of surveys, one on how much pocket money fathers get, and another on how much of the family budget women secretly skim off to spend on themselves.

Demographics

For the women, between the 22nd and 24th of June 2009 1,180 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.6% of the sample were female, 10.3% were in their teens, 22.9% in their twenties, 31.5% in their thirties, 19.2% in their forties, 9.6% in their fifties, and 6.4% aged sixty or older.

For the men, between the 23rd and 25th of March 2009 1,043 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 7.8% in their teens, 17.1% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 24.8% in their forties, 11.4% in their fifties, and 10.7% 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. Also note that for the men it was only fathers who were asked, and for women it was either all married women or those with children; the stats aren’t quite clear,

I get as much or as little pocket money as I need to get, and usually use about 400 yen per weekday, plus charging lunch at the work canteen to my credit card.
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