世論 What Japan Thinks

In these tough economic times, one way of saving money is to collect coupons, so this recent survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at this very topic of mobile phone coupons.

Demographics

Over the 1st and 2nd of March 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the Point On monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 50.0% in their fifties.

Just at the weekend, and just in time for this survey, I got two mobile coupons, one for 100 yen off a doughnut and coffee set at Mister Donuts, and the other for a free men’s bath salts from the rather feminine chain of pricey bric-a-brac Afternoon Tea.

I’m not aware of any of the coupon sites mentioned in the last question, but that might be a good topic for Nihon Hacks or Frugalista Japan to investigate.
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Two sillynesses for the price of one today, with the second dose also from goo Ranking, looking at the moment one realises that two people at the office were an item, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of January 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample were male, 6.9% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 28.9% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 10.8% 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 not been in this situation in Japan, but it did happen once at a previous employer when I realised that one person was giving the other a lift home every night, yet they both lived in opposite directions. I actually ended up following their car one night.

Indeed, considering how closely everyone works and socialises, people keep their love life very close to their chests; it is not uncommon for someone in the office to suddenly announce being not just engaged, but actually married.

Photo from jasoneppink on flickr.
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Continuing my occasional theme of FAIL, this time it is a look at what White Day present-related regrets women have, courtesy as usual of goo Ranking.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of January 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample were male, 6.9% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 28.9% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 10.8% 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. This question was for the women only.

In Japan, on Valentine’s Day women give men chocolates or other gifts, and on White Day, the 14th of March, men return the favour. This list of FAILs seem to be more from the obligatory gift-giving side, where women give male co-workers something on Valentine’s Day, then they return a no-strings-attached (in theory…) gift on White Day. The day is also an excuse for men to declare their secret infatuation, with answers like 7 and 8 coming from such experiences, one suspects.
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This is a rather interesting set of results from a survey conducted by MyVoice into the matter of music, where music is understood to be the playback of recorded media for personal consumption, as concerts or musicals do not feature in the answers, and background music in shops is also explicitly excluded.

Demographics

Over the first five days of February 2009 15,247 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, 37% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

My active music listening is limited to musicals, on stage and on screen – I enjoyed Mamma Mia the film, but not as much as the stage. I can forgive Pierce Brosnan’s rather flat singing but he needed a shave, The Winner Takes It All was about twice as long as it needed to be, and the reworking of the stage story just didn’t click with me.

From the survey, putting Q2 and Q6 together one can perhaps conclude that a lot of people are ripping rental CDs to their PC, an activity that is, I believe, actually legal in Japan.
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I would recommend free security software to most people, but the tone of this recent survey conducted by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into free security software seems very much to be taking a sceptical view of free.

Demographics

Between the 27th of February and the 2nd of March 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 5.3% aged sixty or older.

My misgivings about paid-for security software is that they tend to get bloated as time goes on, providing far more features than the average person really needs in an attempt to justify their need for subscription fees. My personal free security recommendations are Avast anti-virus and Spybot Search and Destroy spyware removal, useful if you have a family member who downloads toolbars and desktop widgets of dubious origins.
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Here’s an interesting survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looking at computer usage of mobile phone users, the fourth in the series of regular surveys.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of February 2008 1,067 members of the goo Research mobile monitor group completed a mobile phone internet-based questionnaire. 57.5% of the sample were female, 3.9% in their teens, 29.2% in their twenties, 40.2% in their thirties, 21.4% in their forties, and 5.2% aged fifty or older. Note that one way that they recruit their mobile monitors is by getting them to enter their mobile phone email address when they apply to be a PC monitor, so bear that in mind while reading the results.

My mobile web use is limited to the occassional dictionary lookup and downloading of animated email icons, for reasons of it being too expensive, too slow, and too restrictive.

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Winter may be almost over, but the surveys on the season are not! This recent one from MyVoice looked at the tastes of winter.

Demographics

Over the first five days of February 2008 15,230 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were male, 2% in their teens, 13% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

I don’t really feel winter – down where I live it never really gets below freezing and the weather is closer to the end of autumn in Scotland – perhaps because the leaves fall off the tree about two months later I’m out of sync, and now with the plum trees coming out in flower I’m into spring already. Talking of when spring starts reminds me of a recent post from Shibuya246 on when Japanese think spring starts.

The top taste for me is also satsuma (mikan in Japanese), which has an interesting tale behind why it is so-called. The wife of an American diplomat in the 19th century who introduced it to America apparently confused it with the old provice Satsuma which was a producer of said fruit. It also appears there are three towns in the USA named Satsuma, in Alabama, Florida and Louisiana.
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As quite often happens, this report published by japan.internet.com regarding a survey conducted by iBridge Research Plus into women and home computers was interesting yet frustrating in the incompleteness of the data.

Demographics

On the 23rd of February 2009 300 female members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 23.3% of the sample were in their twenties, 34.7% in their thirties, 29.3% in their forties, 9.6% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

The first frustration is that there is no domestic status described, as it would be interesting to see how they share computers with their husbands, children, parents or flatmates.

A second frustration is no information regarding whether wives get hand-me-downs from their husbands, or if their own PC was bought new, and if so, how much input did they themselves have in the decision.

We have a shared PC at home, running Vista with my wife’s account set to Japanese, mine to English, which does work rather well. We’ve no money for a computer each, but if we did I’d probably get a nice wee Netbook for myself.
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This survey has perhaps a rather narrow sample, but it is the early 20s women who are the trend leaders (or the first to adapt trends promoted by industry, depending on how cynical you want to be) so this recent survey sponsored by JIDPO (Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization) and conducted by goo Research into design reveals a number of interesting numbers.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 5th of December 2008 1,102 women from the goo Research monitor group aged between 20 and 26 answered an online private questionnaire. 33.2% of the sample resided in the Tokyo area, 33.6% in the Osaka area, and 33.2% in the Nagoya area. 9.9% of the sample were aged 20, 14.0% aged 21, 17.2% aged 22, 16.4% aged 23, 20.1% aged 24, 21.8% aged 25, and 0.6% aged 26.

Not surprisingly Apple feature prominently, but note that in Q1 there are six or less iPhone owners who rate their device (cross reference the data with Q3), versus 125 iPod owners, yet in Q2 the iPhone is the second-most appreciated device that people do not own. Both the SoftBank CEO and I know the reason for that.

I am surprised, however, by Sharp’s mobiles being high on the list. Their AQUOS mobile phone ball joint is an impressive piece of industrial design, but the overall phone is a bit ordinary, I feel. My personal favourite mobile phone from a design point of view is the NEC N703iD credit-card themed one.

Oh, and my wife has modelled wedding dresses for the Yumi Katsura in Q8.
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And, of course, in the interest of equality, secrets women are keeping from their Japanese boyfriends. This was the topic of a recent goo Ranking survey, for both men’s secrets and women’s secrets.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of January 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample were male, 6.9% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 28.9% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 10.8% 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.

Looking at the answers, one can assume that it is mostly the single people who are answering, but even still it does paint a picture of rather casual relationships with cheating being an activity that many people are participating in.

For me personally, number three is pretty close, but in a good way. Before I met my wife my ideal was based on relatively low expectations, I suppose, but she is so completely different to the sort of person I thought I could ever hope to meet. Ahh, I could go on and on about her, but then we’d get into number six territory!
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