Apparently there is quite a sub-culture of pen collectors in Japan, but that was not one of the issues investiged by MyVoice when they looked at stationery.
Demographics
Over the first five days of April 2009 15,602 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.
It seems that in nearly every restaurant I go to that requires credit card signatures and has a woman on the till, said woman will have a cute pen decorated with Hello Kitty or the like, often complete with a dangly mascot. For my part I rarely buy stationery, with the last one being a stick of glue in a 100 yen shop last year. Most of my work pens are from work or freebies from conferences.
Oh, and I’ve never really got the appeal of four-colour pens; I grew out of them early into secondary school, yet half my office seems to have them and use them regularly.
There’s nothing terribly graphable in this survey, so instead lets have an advertisement for pens:
This recent survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into the web tool of the moment, micro-blogging, found that certainly for the sample used, there are very few Twitterers in Japan.
Demographics
On the 11th of May 2009 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.7% of the sample were male, 22.7% in their twenties, 26.3% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 21.7% in their fifties, and 4.7% in their sixties.
Despite me having a Twitter account and far more followers than I would expect to have, I never use the thing and quite frankly find the fascination with it inexplicable. In addition, it destroys the link structure of the web as everything gets routed through abbreviated URLs, and given that a lot of people use third-party tools to access Twitter, I don’t get full tracking of my incoming traffic.
I can confidently predict that Twitter or other micro-blogs (blogging in less than 200 characters per entry, a sort of blog for SMS) will not take off in Japan until they support emoji. Read the rest of this entry »
If you’ve ever read any guide books to Japan you’ll no doubt have heard of the “Oto Hime”, Sound Princess, a device in toilets that plays a tune while you do the business. To find out how people use them, iShare conducted a survey into toilet noises.
Demographics
Betwen the 16th and 21st of April 2009 395 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private mobile phone internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 35.7% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, and 35.2% in their forties.
I once did visit a unisex toilet that had an Oto Hime device, but I was too embarassed to press the button.
I didn’t translate the extra question, but they did ask if people tried to save water and other resources, but even those who did flushed the toilet almost as often as those who didn’t. However, a more interesting comparison might have been to whether people are constipated – if you’re straining on the pan for five minutes other people are going to be more of a concern than if you’re in and out in twenty seconds.
I only get bothered when there’s someone with a bad case of the runs splattering away.
I’ve never actually been on many boys’ nights out in Japan, mostly because I feel lonely if I don’t bring the wife along, so I cannot really relate to this ranking survey from goo Ranking about what people pay attention to regarding girls’ nights out and boy’s nights out.
Demographics
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.
Sorry, it’s a bit late at night and I cannot find a nice picture to illustrate this one! Read the rest of this entry »
goo Ranking this time takes us back to our childhood, when we began to feel the first pangs of love, asking what people did when they were young, foolish, and in love, for both women and men.
Demographics
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.
Note that the answers cover teenage crushed on not just schoolmates but also unobtainable figures like teachers and pop stars.
The photo at the top is actually of San Francisco, but it was the first one that popped up then I searched flickr. My thanks to Thomas Hawk for making the picture available. Read the rest of this entry »
MyVoice recently conducted a survey into online shopping usage, the sixth time they have looked at this topic. The results of this survey are very relevant to anyone trying to sell stuff in the Japanese market.
Demographics
Over the first five days of April 2009 15,665 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% int heir teens, 15% in their twenties, 35% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.
The numbers below are much higher than I would have expected! It’s a surprise to me that books are the top item bought – there’s very little discounting on Amazon Japan and there’s no shortage of physical book stores so I feel the online benefit is marginal in Japan, but obviously my gut feeling is wrong.
In Q2SQ4, I’m surprised they didn’t have a specific answer for a text link through a blog, as when I buy stuff it’s usually after a search for reviews then an affiliate click-through from a blog. Read the rest of this entry »
Following up on the 12,000 yen cash handout to every resident, the Government of Japan is next having an Eco Point system, where for buying certain energy-efficient home electronics you get a 5% point award in return that you will be able to cash in for some as-yet not-very-well-specified items. To see what people think of this, Macromill Research recently conducted a survey on the Eco Point system.
Demographics
Over the 27th and 28th of April 2009 516 members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% of the respondents were in their twentes, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.
I’m not really sure of a good reason why people wouldn’t buy energy-efficient items in general. Thinking about it there are good reasons not to buy some items just because they have a stamp on them as often there is a higher price tag and the payback period may be longer than the lifetime of the item itself.
I also can’t help worrying that the stimulus package will encourage people to dispose of items which still have some life left in them, rendering a net negative effect on the environment. My television is a six year old standard tube-type television, but I see no reason why I should bin it now to buy a new set as it is still perfectly serviceable. However, looking at the results of Q4SQ1 almost half of the sample expect to see a positive environmental outcome. Read the rest of this entry »
This recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile spam found that about one in four Japanese are getting multiple mobile spams per day.
Demographics
Between the 22nd and 26th of April 2009 1,061 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.
I think I once got a mobile phone spam long, long ago, but as I rarely venture away from reputable company sites on my mobile, I don’t expose myself to any significant risks. How about you?
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.
My strange way is that I used to peel all the chocolate off Kit-Kats back in the UK and suck the chocolate off Penguin Biscuits, but I cannot lay claim to any odd sweets-eating habits in Japan. I’ve never seen Jelly Babies (or Peeps for the Americans) in Japan outside of import stores, so there are no reports in the list below of people starting with a decapitation.
Here’s a bunch of pretty boys doing number 1, eating their Tongari Corn from their fingers:
Over the first five days of April 2009 15,582 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% were in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 35% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 19% after fifty or older.
I’m surprised at the relatively low figure for spending in Q6, especially given a quarter eat sweets daily – I wonder if this means people only counting treating themselves explicitly to sweets, rather than also adding in purchases of treats for children that they eat together? Read the rest of this entry »
This recent survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into the web tool of the moment, 
If you’ve ever read any guide books to Japan you’ll no doubt have heard of the “Oto Hime”, Sound Princess, a device in toilets that plays a tune while you do the business. To find out how people use them, iShare conducted a survey into 
MyVoice recently conducted a survey into 
Following up on the 
This recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into 
Recently MyVoice investigated the subject of 
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