Following up, in a way, on Saturday’s look at the taspo card, let’s look at smoking in Japan, according to a survey conducted by Central Research Services, Inc.
Demographics
2,000 people aged twenty or over were randomly selected to take part in this survey. 1,328 people of those selected took part in face-to-face interviews between the 6th and 9th of June 2008. Further demographic information was not provided. This was the 22nd time the survey has been conducted; the previous ones were in 1978, 1983, and every year since 1987.
Notice in Q1 there has been a slight rise in smoking rates. Unfortunately no historical information is provided for the demographic breakdown, so it’s difficult to see where the rise is coming from – is it more new smokers, or less people quitting? Is the problem under-age smokers getting addicted, or adults choosing to start?
Q4, giving the numbers bothered by smoking, is a bit difficult to interpret, as both smokers and non-smokers answered. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a quick ranking survery from goo Ranking to squeeze in as my entry to the September 2008 Japan Blog Matsuri on poorly-understood job titles in Japan. As the theme of this month’s Matsuri is language, I’ll list the original Japanese too. I’ll bet many of my readers will be stumped by some of the translations too!
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.
It’s interesting that most of the confusing job titles are English ones. Number 7, Vice-President, refers not to people like Dick Cheney, but to something I notice in start-ups, where everyone in at the founding and/or with substantial shareholdings gets an honorary vice-presidentship for their troubles. I’m not sure what number 14 is doing on the list – an orchestra conductor is a 指揮者, shikisha – do they mean bus conductor?
I used to have an unofficial job title of Transcontinental Code Monkey (I might even still have the T-shirt somewhere), but that’s another story.
Oh, and for the Blog Matsuri I though this or this would have been much more appropriate, but the translation defeated me! Read the rest of this entry »
With the nationwide introduction of taspo, Tobacco pASsPOrt – a proof of age certificate (well, proof that someone over twenty applied for the card) – now complete, DIMSDRIVE Research took their second look at taspo. The first look at taspo by DIMSDRIVE was back in May.
Demographics
Between the 8th and 14th of August 2008 7,381 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor group completed a members-only internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were female, 1.1% in their teens, 13.5% in their twenties, 33.5% in their thirties, 30.6% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 6.7% aged sixty or older.
One obvious effect of taspo is that half as many smokers are now using cigarette vending machines, which must be a serious financial blow to people who have them outside their shops.
At a slight tangent, but my office sells ciggies by the case, and last week they started a promotion with a free gift per pack of 200, with the clip art reading “Thank you father”. Monday the 15th of September is Respect for the Aged Day, so I suspect they are promoting killing your parents with cancer kindness. Read the rest of this entry »
Although the main holiday season is over, this survey by DIMSDRIVE Research into booking lodgings for domestic travel was actually conducted in May, although DIMSDRIVE only got round to publishing it this month.
Demographics
Between the 14th and 22nd of August 2008 9,862 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.7% of the sample were female, 1.0% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 34.5% in their thirties, 30.2% in their forties, 13.9% in their fifties, and 6.1% aged sixty or older.
The only domestic travel I’ve taken this year was a three-day business trip to Tokyo, but this survey is concerned with leisure travel However, wifey booked a night at Kansai Airport before our flight overseas via the internet – if you do stay at the Nikko hotel there it’s well worth joining their members’ club as you get a free room upgrade ticket for your troubles. Read the rest of this entry »
Last time I looked at the iPhone I got a comment on me being a bit negative in my outlook, so this time in a survey by BlogCh looking at smartphones I promise to be more positive!
Demographics
Between the 27th and 29th of August 2008 801 members of the free email service CLUB BBQ who also had a mobile phone for private use completed an online survey. 54.2% of the sample were male, 17.5% in their twenties, 48.3% in their thirties, 29.0% in their forties, and 5.2% in their teens or aged fifty or older. Note that the CLUB BBQ demographics is more technologically aware than the average internet user.
I thought my next mobile phone might be just another bog-standard one, but I just recently read a bit about the HTC Touch (or the HT1100 as DoCoMo label it) and it gets a lot of good reviews and comes in at the same price as… but it doesn’t do emoji. Curses! However, the Willcom 03, one of the subjects of this review, can at least display them.
Indeed, looking at the Willcom 03 feature set it looks like it is what the iPhone should have been for the Japan market. Oops, I’m being negative again, but for the sake of research I stopped at a mobile phone shop and picked up the Willcom 03 leaflet. It’s very feminine, telling the story of a week in the life of a young businesswoman in suitable pastel colours, and for just 6,700 yen all-in for unlimited data and zero money down (I think), it’s a winner.
Incidentally, I’ve not seen an iPhone in the wild yet, and I’ve seen just one or two iPod touches Read the rest of this entry »
Perhaps I over-estimate the average Japanese consumer’s desire for value before reputation, but I found the results of this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into computers at home quite surprising.
Demographics
Between the 3rd and 8th of September 2008 1,001 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 3.0% of the sample were male, 12.7% in their teens, 22.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.7% aged fifty or older.
NEC, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Sony have TV tuners in most of their line-up, as well as integrated features for recording television shows to disk, so their desktops, usually equipped with wide-screens, can easily double as televisions in cramped Japanese homes.
In the notebook field, Panasonic come a very poor 10th with not even 3% of the home market, despite an earlier survey showing them to be the most popular business notebook. The price of them at retail is frightening, quite frankly, and they come with very few of the bells and whistles that are loaded (overloaded?) onto the other brands. Wondering out loud with absolutely no information to back this up, but given that they have recently released Viera-branded (their TV technology) mobile phones, I wonder if they’ll build a Viera notebook (or even desktop) to try to capture more of the home market?
Finally, despite the sub-notebook market being big in the West at least, and despite many shops selling an Asus Eee PC for just 100 yen if you take out a two-year subscription to the 3G mobile internet service from E-Mobile, Asus and Acer with their Aspire One barely register in sales or purchase intentions. Read the rest of this entry »
Universal design, a term coined by Ron Mace, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, has been embraced by many Japanese companies. To see how awareness of it is spreading throughout Japan, this survey from MyVoice investigated what people thought of Universal Design, or UD as it is often abbreviated to.
Demographics
Over the first five days of August 2008 15,045 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a members-only online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 18% in their fifties.
In Q4, the lack of awareness of UD when selecting products is not necessarily a bad thing, as good UD should ideally be invisible. On many Panasonic products, for instance, the on button is a large yellow one with a black legend, a colour scheme which has been shown to be the most visible to people with cataracts or other vision problems, and the largeness makes it easier to find and push. Without knowledge of UD, the average able-bodied user perhaps just thinks it’s clearly marked, without considering the accessibility issues. Read the rest of this entry »
The figure in the headline is a surprisingly high one, coming from this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Marsh Inc into measures to prevent leaks of information.
Demographics
Over the 28th and 29th of August 2008 300 people from the Marsh monitor panel with home computers completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, and 20.0% in each age group from the twenties to the over-sixties.
The difference in Q1 between online shopping and online checkout is that many services offer not just online payment, but also offline payment at convenience store kiosks, and even cash on delivery to said convenience stores.
For Q2SQ, my wife had that, filling in a dodgy survey from a site linked from a popular trustworthy site, and she gets about 10 spam per day from them. Read the rest of this entry »
This week’s Silly Sunday looks at love in Japanese high schools, in particular people’s personal memories from there, for both men and women.
Demographics
Between the 11th and 15th of July 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.9% of the sample were female, 10.3% in their teens and 89.7% in their twenties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample. Read the rest of this entry »
In yesterday’s post I pondered out loud about whether or not the line I commute on is the busiest one in the Osaka area or not, so I decided to look for some statistics. With surprisingly little effort, I found the data for last year, 2007, for Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya areas.
The degree of crowding was averaged over one hour over all the trains passing through the segment between two stations, and I presume also averaged over the year. As a baseline, 100% is full, not just all seats taken, but also the straps and a few people around the doors. 150% is touching shoulders, but can still easily read a newspaper. 180% is bodies touching, but can just manage to read. 200% is just a bit too close, but you can still just manage a magazine or book. 250% is sardines.
Following up, in a way, on Saturday’s look at the taspo card, let’s look at smoking in Japan, according to a survey conducted by Central Research Services, Inc.
With the nationwide introduction of taspo, Tobacco pASsPOrt – a proof of age certificate (well, proof that someone over twenty applied for the card) – now complete, DIMSDRIVE Research took their second look at 
Although the main holiday season is over, this survey by DIMSDRIVE Research into 
Last time I looked at the iPhone I got a comment on me being a bit negative in my outlook, so this time in a survey by BlogCh looking at 
Perhaps I over-estimate the average Japanese consumer’s desire for value before reputation, but I found the results of this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into 
Universal design, a term coined by Ron Mace, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, has been embraced by many Japanese companies. To see how awareness of it is spreading throughout Japan, this survey from MyVoice investigated what people thought of 
The figure in the headline is a surprisingly high one, coming from this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Marsh Inc into 
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