If you miss the last train home, a good tip I hear is to spend the night in an internet cafe. To see how popular that and other activities are at these places, MyVoice recently performed a survey on this very topic of internet cafes.
Demographics
Over the first five days of March 2008 14,691 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties.
Although I have never set foot in one, I have an image of internet cafes as dim and dingy places. I should really visit once just to confirm or dispel my prejudice, but as most will no doubt have a permanent fog of cigarette smoke I might not last more than a couple of minutes!
An important part of any technical person’s job is, I believe, to keep up with the latest innovations, and one way of doing so is to read White Papers published by companies that describe their advances in research and development. This recent report published on japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into White Papers looks at the habits of Japanese.
Demographics
On the 3rd of April 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either private or public industry completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.6% were male, 10.3% in their twenties, 41.5% in their thirties, 36.1% in their forties, 10.6% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties..
There is the other kind of White Paper, that published by governments as forerunners to drafting of bills or for explanations of policies. I cannot say I have read any for sure, but I may have glanced at one or two, or they may just have been draft bills.
I’ve always wanted to write a White Paper, but as my employer emphasises patents as the key way of disclosing new ideas, this is what I end up producing. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the 21st and 22nd of February 2008 1,052 people from the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% were female, 6.4% in their teens, 15.7% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 26.6% in their forties, 11.2% in their fifties, and 9.1% aged sixty or over. 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’m not sure what the exact selection criteria for these societies were; was it a hand-picked list and people chose the most interesting to them, or was it a free answer?
Number 1 is a great choice, and a good excuse to link to Neil Duckett’s pottering about around the Yamanote Line in Tokyo, as I’ve done that a few times myself around areas I thought I was familiar with, but it’s quite fascinating to just wander about taking in the atmosphere. I don’t know if I’d like the actual pottering as a group activity, but having somewhere to swap photos and chat about one’s discoveries would be fun.
I’d probably also want to join a Gaijins Who Don’t Like Hanging Out With Other Gaijins Appreciation Society. No wait… Read the rest of this entry »
Between the 24th and 27th of March 2008 1,091 members of the goo Research online monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample was male, 16.1% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, and 28.2% aged fifty or older.
Second Life, or Sadville as The Register calls it, is an online 3D virtual world where you can do and build whatever you want, but most things inevitably end up revolving around sex of often a rather perverted nature.
I personally have never played and have no intention of doing so, not least because my poor PC isn’t up to taking the strain. Read the rest of this entry »
I did get as far as going to look round a sports club once, but the staff were not very friendly at all and the price was a bit high, so I gave up. I should try again somewhere else… To see how the Japanese view this topic, DIMSDRIVE Research recently performed a survey into sports clubs.
Demographics
Between the 20th and 28th of February 2008 6,016 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.7% of the sample was female, 1.5% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 34.5% in their thirties, 25.3% in theire forties, 17.5% in their fifties, and 1.2% aged sixty or older.
I have been just the once to a fitness club in Japan in a hotel we were staying in, as we had a package that included free use of the facilities. The walking machine was fun, and the instructor helped us out with stretching exercises and the like, but then he introduced me to the stair machine which completely killed me in under 10 seconds. After that it was off to the hot tub and swimming pool, which is much more my idea of exercise!
In Q4 there is one type of training mentioned, 加圧, kaatsu, which is quite the popular fad in Japan amongst people on television. Basically you constrict bloodflow to your arms or legs and do a normal workout, and scientific studies in Japan have shown that for certain conditions and certain people it is better than normal exercise. To me it looks pretty dangerous, quite frankly! There’s very little English language information on this, and the scientific papers I see are split between those seeing an effect and those not. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s another quickie survey today (sorry, a bit busy these days to concentrate on long translations!), again reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Marsh into the matter of e-learning.
Demographics
Between the 26th and 31st of March 2008 300 members of the Marsh internet monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. The sexes were split 50:50, and by age 20.0% were in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 13.3% in their fifties, and 6.7% aged sixty or older.
I once tried an internet site that offered Kanji Kentei training, but I didn’t really enjoy it much, and anyway now there’s Nintendo DS software for kanji practice for round about the same price as three months on the web site, why bother? Talking of the DS, looking at the results below it seems that e-learning here means internet-delivered contents, not software. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a quickie report from japan.internet.com on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into customising one’s desktop at home.
Demographics
On the 31st of March 2008 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either the public or private sector successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 78.5% of the sample was male, 12.1% in their twenties, 39.0% in their thirties, 36.9% in their forties, 10.6% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.
I don’t bother with gadgets myself. I did once try out Opera-based ones, but they just got in the way, as does Google’s toolbar stuff, so I keep that safely out of the way docked at the bottom of the screen. Read the rest of this entry »
With the Nova bunny finally succumbing to myxomatosis last year, there has been a good number of people with nowhere to learn English. So, this recent survey from JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com regarding studying English conversation looks at if people might be interested in virtually learning the language.
Demographics
On the 29th of March 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either public or private industry completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 77.9% of the sample was male, 12.4% in their twenties, 41.2% in their thirties, 34.5% in their forties, 10.3% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.
English conversation differs from actual English language study, as it is based on the theory that if you sit a Japanese person beside an English speaker, there will be a miraculous transfer of the contents of the victim’s wallet language abilities. There are of course a few good schools and teachers, but the mass market companies are not much more than social clubs for both the students and teachers. Read the rest of this entry »
The battle for new customers amongst the mobile carriers is rather intense, with the three main players running lots of prime-time television advertising. To see what effect they are having on the average Japanese consumer, NEPRO Japan recently looked at mobile phone television advertisements.
Research results
From 10 am on the 7th to 3 am on the 8th of March 2008 4,498 users of the mobile phone menuing systems from the three main providers, namely iMode, Yahoo! Keitai and EZweb self-selected themselves to complete an open survey. 56% of the sample was female, 3% in their teens, 35% in their twenties, 42% in their thirties, and 20% aged forty or older.
Sadly, if the result in Q4 had been the other way round I could have got the much more enticing title of “Yukie Nakama gets licked by dog”, but it was not to be. Anyway, here is the lovely Yukie Nakama, and some other not-so-lovely people:
Although I can’t stand dogs in real life, I really do like the SoftBank commercials! Yukie Namaka’s au “Anybody!” appearances are rather entertaining too, although the latest ones are a bit naff. I can’t remember recent DoCoMo adverts, although a few months ago they had celebrity-infested ones. Just to round out, eMobile has monkeys, with this one featuring the SoftBank dog’s twin brother being amazed at the cheap deals. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the 21st and 22nd of February 2008 1,052 people from the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% were female, 6.4% in their teens, 15.7% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 26.6% in their forties, 11.2% in their fifties, and 9.1% aged sixty or over. 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 can’t say I suffer from any of the old git activities listed in Q1, at least I hope not, except for the moaning about work, but at least my moaning is justified! For Q2, the one thing that does confuse me is the fashion for trouser crotches around the knees in men. To preserve their modesty, even school trousers seem to come in high waistband size, so it just looks exceedingly silly and I wish they’d all stop it! Next comes sloppy speech, all the “maji yabee!” and “ore saa”. Uggh! Read the rest of this entry »
If you miss the last train home, a good tip I hear is to spend the night in an internet cafe. To see how popular that and other activities are at these places, MyVoice recently performed a survey on this very topic of internet cafes.
An important part of any technical person’s job is, I believe, to keep up with the latest innovations, and one way of doing so is to read White Papers published by companies that describe their advances in research and development. This recent report published on japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into 
Having looked in passing at 
I did get as far as going to look round a sports club once, but the staff were not very friendly at all and the price was a bit high, so I gave up. I should try again somewhere else… To see how the Japanese view this topic, DIMSDRIVE Research recently performed a survey into 
Here’s another quickie survey today (sorry, a bit busy these days to concentrate on long translations!), again reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Marsh into the matter of 
Here’s a quickie report from japan.internet.com on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into 
With the 
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