世論 What Japan Thinks

This is a very straightforward look at a quite straitforward subject, wristwatches. This survey was reported on japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research.

Demographics

Between the 6th and 11th of August 2008 1,055 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 14.5% in their teens, 19.7% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.8% aged fifty or older.

I just got my watch battery replaced (1,000 yen from Yodobashi Camera, in case you’re wondering, but for some reason I had over 3,000 repair points on my card, so I got it for free) on my analogue-dialled stopwatch-adorned watch that I only wear at weekends, on the outside of my left wrist.
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Let’s be silly again today with goo Ranking, looking this time at when people feel loved, for both men and women. Note that the sample for this group is in their teens and twenties only.

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.

Hugs are my number one! The number one for men actually sounds pretty dangerous to me.

Oh, and before you comment, as usual more spicy answers have been filtered out by goo Research!
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Today’s dose of sillyness is as usual from goo Ranking, looking at the ideal situation for a first kiss, for both men and women. Note that the sample for this group is in their teens and twenties only.

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.

My first kiss in Japan was in a location not featuring in the ranking, down a dark alley behind some vending machines. Romantic, eh?
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This is a bit of a short, but sweet, survey conducted by BlogCh into cellphone function ease of use.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 28th of July 2008 547 people (the selection method was not mentioned) completed a survey. 52.3% of the sample were male, 21.1% in their twenties, 45.9% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, and 8.8% of other ages.

I liked this survey because one of the selling points of the SoftBank iPhone is the ease of use, which the foreign press often stresses whilst mentioning the difficulty of Japanese cellphone operation. The results here highlight few are really comfortable with their phones. I was surprised by Osaifu Keitai (RFID-based contactless payment) being the hardest to use, as it’s just a touch on the sensor and you’re done. However, I think there is also the aspect of difficulty of understanding what exactly it is mixed in with these results.

Another reason I liked this survey was the use of Japanese to describe the degrees of confidence. I’ll leave them untranslated.
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This survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com regarding computer recycling is a particularly relevant survey to me, as I am right now in the middle of copying files from an old PC to a new one via my notebook.

Demographics

On the 7th of August 2008 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 14.2% in their twenties, 41.4% in their thirties, 23.0% in their forties, 12.1% in their fifties, and 9.4% in their sixties.

There has to be a better way to copy around 80GB of data from one computer to the other! I’m just using a network share and the rather nice utility TeraCopy that fixes a few bugs and annoyances in the standard Windows file copying routines. One other problem I have is that I only have one monitor and only one handy network connection so I cannot directly copy from old to new. Hopefully I’ll be up and running by tomorrow.

Regarding disposal of computers, the 資源有効利用促進法, shigenyuukouriyousokushinhou, or Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources, to give it its official English translation according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry web site, requires businesses to promote recycling of computers (and air conditioners, microwaves, televisions, washing and drying machines, fridges, and copiers).
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[Part 1][Part 2]

Now for part 2 of this survey conducted by an unnamed market research firm for Kao’s cat goods division into cat toiletism. Yes, they did stick an -ism on the end!

Demographics

No details were given, bar that 3,025 people owned by cats completed a survey. They do mention, however, that there are over 7 million households with cats, and in the last five years the percentage of single human households with a cat has doubled to the current figure of 14.4% of the total, or just over a million singles with a cat.

In Q8, remember that most Japanese homes are on the small size, so the choice of where to put the litter tray is rather limited.

At the moment in Japan there is a bit of a cat boom, and one of the ways it is expressed is by cat cafes, where you can have a cup of tea amongst some kitties. Indeed, I went to one recently, and once I finish uploading to flickr I’ll post a review.
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[Part 1][Part 2]

How do you know if your cat loves his litter tray? To try to find out in a less direct fashion than illustrated by the photograph, an unnamed market research firm on behalf of Kao’s cat goods division looked into cat toiletism. Yes, they did stick an -ism on the end!

Demographics

No details were given, bar that 3,025 people owned by cats completed a survey. They do mention, however, that there are over 7 million households with cats, and in the last five years the percentage of single human households with a cat has doubled to the current figure of 14.4% of the total, or just over a million singles with a cat.

My main reason for liking cats is that they are not clingy. I can’t stand dogs, with one of the reasons being their over-friendliness. Being able to keep themselves entertained when left on their own is a big plus too, of course. Back in Scotland I liked the pine chip poo sand and never understood why anyone would buy the Fuller’s Earth clay stuff!

Photograph by lynx81.
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Recently, goo Research, in conjuction with All About, looked at young married women and ecology and lifestyle.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 5th of July 2008 1,039 married women from the goo Research online monitor panel successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 100% of the sample was female, of course, 33.3% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, and 34.1% in their forties. 38.4% were full-time employees, 11.4% contract or dispatch staff, and 50.2% were full-time housewives. I don’t know why no part-timers or students were in the sample.

A recent story from the New York Times misrepresented the situation regarding energy consumption of heated toilets, but thinking about the situation more and seeing a couple of much more efficient European products, I realised the biggest domestic energy saving that can be made with little alteration to the average Japanese person’s lifestyle is to replace the hot water pot with some of the newer types of kettle.

I was going to post something describing the relative power consumptions, but it’s really difficult to get figures for kettles in sensible units – all I got was stuff like “If everyone boiled only the water they needed to make a cup of tea instead of filling the kettle every time, we could save enough electricity in a year to power the UK’s street lights for nearly 7 months. This is the equivalent of the electricity used by 300,000 households for a year or output of a typical power station for nearly 5 months.” If these figures weren’t incomprehensible enough, it said the above would save “enough CO2 to fill Big Ben tower more than 50,000 times.”

Just how much CO2 is 50,000 Big Ben’s worth?
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The number in the headline is quite surprisingly high, I feel, as revealed by this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Marsh Inc into web filtering. The survey was specifically looking at service for blocking web pages with content deemed to be harmful.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 4th of August 2008 300 members of the Marsh online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and 20:20:20:20:20 of people in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and sixty or older.

Sadly, details of why people use filtering services was not described. What it for protection from viruses, to stop their children accessing unsuitable material, or what? Without purchasing the full survey results we will never know.
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This Sunday it’s another look at gender differences, with goo Ranking reporting on what wives wish their husbands would do for them once in a while, and the reverse, what husbands wish their wives would do for them once in a while.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of June 2008 1,014 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 6.5% in their teens, 14.5% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 8.8% 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.

For me, I already do 1 (well, I bake), 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 (more precisely, I help with the hanging out), 10, she says I don’t do 11 enough, the second 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, she won’t trust me to do 24, 25, both 26s, 28 and 30 more than once in a while. I’d only want her to do 28, but not for a selfish reason. She doesn’t do ironing, but I’ve noticed in Japan ironing is not that popular an activity with anyone.
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