世論 What Japan Thinks

I haven’t looked at Social Networking Services (SNS) for a while, so I was pleased to find this one to report, published on japan.internet.com and conducted by another newcomer to me, Point On Research, on mobile SNS.

Demographics

On the 16th of November 2008 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users completed a survey. It does not say whether or not the survey was conducted via mobile phone or computer-based internet, as a mobile phone base would imply a higher percentage of people on all-you-can-eat data plans, so these sort of people tend to be more active online. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20:20:20:20:20 of people in their teens, twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties.

Note that although most people use a cut-down browser on their mobile phones, all the major PC-sites have tailored their interfaces to fit these restrictions. Having said that, most of the top sites in Q1 are mobile-only free game-centred SNSes.
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After the Second World War an undecided territorial issue between the USSR/Russia and Japan was the fate of the four most southern of the Northern Territories, as they are known in Japan, or the Kuril Isles to the Russians. This survey from the Cabinet Office Japan (so obviously there is an inherent bias towards the official government position) looked at what the Japanese think about the Northern Territories issue.

Demographics

3,000 members of the public aged 20 or over were randomly selected for face-to-face interviews between the 9th and 19th of October 2008. 1,826 people, or 60.9%, agreed to take part. Sex and age demographics were not given, but since Cabinet Office surveys are conducted face-to-face they tend to catch an older demographic.

As background on the issue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a pamphlet describing the Japanese position, Gregory Clarke wrote an article on this for the Japan Times a few years ago, and Russia Today looked at the new Japanese curriculum that will start teaching that the isles are Japanese.
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Censorship is always a hot topic in discussions regarding the internet, with recent flare-ups surrounding such matters as the government trying to remove web sites promoting suicide by sulfide gas (although Bloomberg reported how to do it), so I was pleased to see the issue being tackled by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com in this survey on web censorship.

Research results

Between the 12th and 14th of November 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 20.0% 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 am certainly not for government-level censorship of either domestic or foreign web content, but I do support properly-executed legal orders for domestic sites to remove content, and of course self-regulation by service providers. The web should be neither a free-for-all or a free-for-none, but instead a healthy balance must be reached. In Q2, I think they must mean within Japan, as The Great Firewall of China is a fact.

For those curious about the Japanese language used in the original survey, I translated 検閲, ken-etsu, as censorship, and 規制, kisei, as regulation.
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One of the big stories doing the rounds in Japan is the number of people getting busted for possession of maru, and the general moral panic over the matter. To try to quantify the size of the problem, the university student-targeted Social Networking Service LinNo today published the results of a survey of their users, as reported by ITMedia.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 18th of November 2008 465 university students who were members of the LinNo SNS completed an internet-based questionnaire. No further demographic information was provided.

The questionnaire seemed just a little tame to me, although perhaps a fuller set of questions was asked. Do students believe it should be legalised? Why was “join in” an option if a friend was puffing away, but not if it was a boy or girlfriend? What about usage of other drugs? What about the “just say no” policy? Do they believe it to be a gateway drug?
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A new-to-me research company called realworld realresearch, which from a quick look at their site seems to be more in the business of being a shopping and stuff portal than a research agency, recently performed a survey into local authorities and IT, as reported by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 13th of October 2008 1,199 people selected by some undescribed means completed a presumably online questionnaire. 52.0% of the sample were female, 15.0% were in their twenties, 16.0% in their thirties, 18.0% in their forties, 21.0% in their fifties, and 30.0% in their sixties. Given the round percentages, don’t ask why they couldn’t find one more person to round the sample up to 1,200! It’s also a curiously top-heavy sample, with the majority of the sample being over fifty.

I’m surprised that (as far as I know) no local authority has tried moving more services online, as one still needs to get a paper print-out of one’s residency certificate for such things as mortgages and other large loans, or at least why there cannot be vending machines that will spew out the documents 24-7 instead of requiring people to attend during working hours.

Here’s my town’s application form download service.
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Pink Tentacle has posted the first “…of the Year” post for this year, with the sixty candidate words for Jiyu Kokuminsha’s Word of the Year candidates, to be annouced on the first of December. Very much worth a read for a potted history of Japan and the media for 2008.

Although almost all mobile phones can connect to the internet, and although most, if not all, providers offer free contract maintenance pages accessible directly from one’s mobile, the traditional offline methods are still most used, according to this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com on mobile phone use.

Demographics

Between the 30th of October and the 2nd of November 2008 1,091 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 21.8% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 11.6% aged sixty or older.

I’ve recently started using docomo’s my docomo site (no English version) for almost daily bill checking now, as I’m trying to find out if their pake-hodai double plan is actually cheaper for me, as I suspect it isn’t as I use barely 1,000 yen’s worth of packets, but as part of my basic plan I get 1,000 yen’s worth of free packets, so I think I’d have to double my usage to get my money’s worth. I’ll know at the end of the month.

I also used docomo’s billing plan diagnostic service, but it was a really unfriendly service and did not link directly to my own bill, so rather than it using my last six months-worth of data, for instance, I had to retype all the data, and because it was done as some sort of AJAX/Flash hack, the browser back button didn’t work so I couldn’t easily try out different scenarios. Checking it again today it won’t let me use Opera 9.6 even though it says only Opera 8.5 and below are not good enough, and it recommends the just far too buggy Internet Explorer 6.0 instead.
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As a bonus for today, here’s a second silly survey from goo Ranking, this time looking at what hosework Japanese people find the most bother, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 28th of July 2008 1,072 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 5.7% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 31,0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 10.5% in their fifties, and 10.4% 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.

At home I do and enjoy most of the washing of dishes, throwing out the rubbish, hoovering, and garden maintenance, but I hate the most doing the toilet, but luckily my wife takes most care of that. Cleaning the air conditioner is probably the most bother as we have a high ceiling and some of the air conditioner covers are a bit broken!
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A while back I took a look at bad chopsticks habits, but this time goo Ranking expanded the field to cover bad table manners people just can’t break. However, this time we didn’t get a breakdown by sex.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 26th of September 2008 1,044 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 5.8% in their teens, 12.7% in their twenties, 32.3% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 12.3% in their fifties, and 9.3% 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 occasionally do 3, I must admit, and at home I always lick the yoghurt lid, and my wife gets annoyed at me sometimes when I don’t do triangle eating. Other than that I claim to be free of all the other habits!
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Official online party political activity is banned in Japan during election periods due to legal restrictions that I am not quite sure about, but that doesn’t stop people feeling the internet has a big effect on outcomes. Given that this survey from Marsh Inc and reported on japan.internet.com was conducted just after the US elections, I wonder how much thinking of America instead of Japan affected the outcome of this look at searching for election information.

Demographics

Between the 6th and 10th of November 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were male, 20.0% 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 don’t know how Japanese discussion works on the internet, but I was again extremely disappointed at the US coverage on the various social news sites, as the arguments focus around why one shouldn’t vote for the other guy rather than actually dealing with the issues. I still have little idea what Mr Obama plans to do, and given the state of the world economy these days, and given that I don’t believe he will keep all his promises, and given the size of the USA, I feel he cannot do much more than tinker at the controls for his first term.
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