I run anti-virus software at home, and at work of course, but there always is the worry that it’s chewing up system resources – at work a full disk scan starts at noon on Wednesdays and takes around two hours to process my desktop, rendering most other tasks pretty much unusable – but better safe than sorry, which is, I suppose, how TrendMicro and the rest make their money. To find out what the average Japanese person uses at home, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into anti-virus software.
Demographics
On the 19th of March 2008 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in either the private or public sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.7% of the sample was male, 10.6% in their twenties, 38.4% in their thirties, 35.3% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.
Between the 27th of February and 3rd of March 2008 7,345 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire.
Before I go any further, I better make it clear that this is merely a translation of a survey, and I have no direct investments in the companies listed, I am not a professional, please do not make investment decisions based on this article, and other disclaimers…
I’m surprised, but then also not suprised, that JAL rates so highly, as they seem to be on dodgy financial ground, but they are the national carrier, so perhaps symbolism and patriotism outweighs financial due diligence.
It’s also interesting to note that there are few out-and-out technology companies and certainly no internet-focused companies on the list; Nintendo is perhaps the closest, but they sell hardware as much as software, Sony is mostly home electronics, and SoftBank is as much about infrastructure and handset resale as communication. Seven Bank, a new online and offline bank run by the same group that owns the 7-11 convenience store chain is perhaps the most revolutionary company on the list. Read the rest of this entry »
Between the 21st and 23rd of January 2008 1,017 members of the goo Research online monitor panel aged between 20 and 34, single and living alone, and regular full-time employees completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample was female, 28.0% was aged between 20 and 24, 39.4% between 25 and 29, and 32.6% between 30 and 34.
I’m very suprised by the results of Q6 as shown in the pie chart above. Barely one in twenty are on speaking terms with the neighbours, which is much lower than I might have expected. I’d love to hear the reasons why.
Just to explain the anti thumb-turn covers, these try to prevent one kind of housebreaking attack where someone sticks a wire through your letterbox and turns the lock from the inside. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the big new things for television in Japan these days is AcTVila, basically a portal site for internet-connected televisions. A recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by March Inc into usage of AcTVila investigated awareness of the technology.
Demographics
Between the 6th and 10th of March 2008 300 members of the Marsh online monitor panel 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, 13.3% in their fifties, and 6.7% aged sixty or older.
I’ve not played with the service myself, and I’m still on an analogue television, so I’m a bit in the dark about the whole affair! I’ve not even seen advertisements for the service, or television manufacturers promoting support for it in their advertising, so I’m not sure where the awareness is coming from. Read the rest of this entry »
As this is an area in which I have more than just a passing interest, I found this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research into the matter of mobile phone software upgrades most interesting.
Demographics
Between the 21st and 24th of March 2008 1,090 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.8% of the sample was male, 17.2% in their teens, 19.4% in their twenties, 15.6% in their thirties, 17.3% in their forties, 18.4% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.
I suspect my phone is set to manual mode for update notification; my wife, however, had random power-offs when writing mail that I thought may be due to a wonky keyboard, but there had been a software update for the phone, so she downloaded that update and the problem went away.
The low percentage of those with software bugs is due to Japanese quality, where quality is defined as performance to specification. Some specifications are terrible, and the implementation is similarly sometimes suspect, but everything usually works as defined. Read the rest of this entry »
Healthy beer is a phrase one doesn’t hear too often, but that’s basically the title of a recent survey conducted by MyVoice into health-related beer-like drinks.
Demographics
Over the first five days of March 2008 14,373 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed an internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 15% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties. Note that since the legal drinking age is twenty, teenagers were excluded from this survey.
I got a free can of Kirin ZERO for going to see a cross-dressing dancing General Douglas MacArthur (don’t ask!) but my wife gave it away to the father-in-law before I got a chance to sample it. I tried Tanrei Green Label and it was just as much swill as the full-sugar Tanrei!
In Q7, being good for health is an interesting answer. I suspect it is not just a poor wording (“can control calorie intake” might have been better), but I’ve seen people on television interpret “not so bad for you” as “can consume as much as I like.” One strong memory is of an actor knocking back two or more bottles of red wine a night and being shocked when the doctor told him that that was a bad thing. Read the rest of this entry »
This headline will no doubt have most of my readers groaning, but more of that a couple of paragraphs further down. This was one of the curious results from a recent survey conducted by Japan Research Council into concerns about environmental problems.
Demographics
Between the 7th and 19th of November 2007 (before the aforementioned Japan Tobacco had a number of their China-made frozen gyoza laced with poison, a case that is still unresolved) 1,200 people were randomly selected from resident databases in 200 representative areas. From each of the locations 6 willing survey respondents were chosen for face-to-face interviews. 50.4% of the sample were female, 6.2% were in their teens, 15.2% in their twenties, 17.9% in their thirties, 15.2% in their forties, 18.5% in their fifties, 15.9% in their sixties, and 11.1% in their seventies.
Although Toyota do produce a lot of fuel-efficient cars, with the Prius the star amongst them, and are not slow to blow their own trumpet on the topic, other cars in their range are not so great fuel-wise, and indeed as I mentioned before, their new Noah and Voxy have 10% worse fuel consumption than the old models! As for Japan Tobacco, this survey highlights how clever, evily clever, their advertising team are. Smoking outside has been changed from a health issue to litter and safety issues, with the dangers being poking children in the eyes with lighted ciggies or dropping butt ends rather than dying horribly from cancer or living out your twilight years dragging an oxygen bottle behind you. Also note that Japan Tobacco outranks Sharp, the world’s largest producer of solar panels.
Continuing the running a mile series, this fun survey from goo Ranking looks at what stuff in a friend of the opposite sex who lives alone’s room makes you want to run a mile, for both men looking at women’s rooms and women looking at men’s rooms.
Demographics
Bewteen the 22nd and 25th of January 2008 1,126 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.4% of the sample was female, 3.6% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 35.1% in their thirties, 27.3% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 7.3% 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.
This survey is looking at friends who invite you round to their home for just an innocent visit, but they are also the sort of friend you might consider going out with. I haven’t a clue what sort of woman might have cigars lying around the house, though, but I don’t think I’d hang around to find out… Similarly I don’t know what women were thinking when they rated men with bunny ears so highly; are there really than many guys with them? Read the rest of this entry »
I’m sure many other people like to grab a bit of chocolate as comfort food to cope with the stresses of daily life, and this survey from MyVoice into mood-changing and sweets showed that the Japanese are no different!
Demographics
Over the first five days of March 14,773 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% were female, 1% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.
I rate pretty highly on the stress scale, and I do eat perhaps too much chocolate, especially at work to get me through the afternoon I snack on Petit Bit chocolate, with kinako (soya bean flour) flavour being my favourite at the moment. Read the rest of this entry »
As I just had one of them today, I thought I’d publish this silly goo Ranking two days early; the survey looks at the moment when you realise you mucked up or encountered some other disaster of your own making, for both men and women.
Demographics
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.
My “oh bugger!” moment was going to work and realising that today is actually a special holiday; we get four a year at work, and as yesterday (Thursday 20th March) was the spring equinox, a Japan public holiday, they decided to declare Friday a special holiday, so I turned up to a locked office! Oh bugger! Oh, and wifey did the women’s number 23 yesterday, remembering to hang out everything except my bath towel, although it was me rather than her who said “Oh bugger!”
By the way, I hope you don’t mind my use of language – I use the rule of thumb that I don’t write anything I wouldn’t want my mother reading, and as “oh bugger!” is just about the only swearword I’ve ever heard her use, if you are offended, please email my mother…
I run anti-virus software at home, and at work of course, but there always is the worry that it’s chewing up system resources – at work a full disk scan starts at noon on Wednesdays and takes around two hours to process my desktop, rendering most other tasks pretty much unusable – but better safe than sorry, which is, I suppose, how TrendMicro and the rest make their money. To find out what the average Japanese person uses at home, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into anti-virus software.
A recent survey from goo Research, conducted in conjuction with the All About Japan web site, looked at 
One of the big new things for television in Japan these days is 
As this is an area in which I have more than just a passing interest, I found this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research into the matter of 
Healthy beer is a phrase one doesn’t hear too often, but that’s basically the title of a recent survey conducted by MyVoice into 
This headline will no doubt have most of my readers groaning, but more of that a couple of paragraphs further down. This was one of the curious results from a recent survey conducted by Japan Research Council into 
I’m sure many other people like to grab a bit of chocolate as comfort food to cope with the stresses of daily life, and this survey from MyVoice into 
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