世論 What Japan Thinks

You may remember last month I published a survey on what makes Japanese women run a mile, so now it’s time to look with goo Ranking at what female actions make men run a mile at drinking parties.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% aged sixty or older. Obviously only the male 45.6%, or 499 people, answered this particular question. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

The most obvious difference between this and the previous survey is groping! It was the top hate for women, but the bottom one for men. Another notable exception from the men’s list is the number 7 from the women’s list, pestering someone for their phone number! My top two would have to be smoking and poor table manners.
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I used to have athlete’s foot, but Japanese over-the-counter medicines cured it pretty promptly and it has never returned, mainly due, I suspect, to living in much more hygenic conditions since I got married! To find out about festering feet in Japan and other issues, Yahoo! Japan Value Insight conducted a survey into what is known as switch OTC medicines, which means medicines with active ingredients that have switched from being prescription only to being also sold Over The Counter.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 15th December 2007 600 members of the Yahoo! Japan Value Research online monitor panel successfully completed a survey. Exactly 50.0% were male, and 33.3% were in their thirties, 33.3% in their forties, and 33.3% in their fifties. Each age group was also split 50:50 male and female. In addition exactly 50.0% had used OTC medicines for athlete’s foot within the last six months; I presume that these users were evenly distributed by sex and age.

I better have a short disclaimer just in case: I am not a health professional, and nothing within this article should be taken as medical advice, or even as accurate information. Please consult a doctor or pharmacist before taking any medicines, even over the counter ones, in order to avoid drug interactions or other problems. Mentions of any products or links to external sites does not imply a recommendation or a vouching for the quality or even safety of the products or sites.
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I just read an article on IT Media about music sales figures for 2007, published by the RIAJ, the Recording Industry Ass. of Japan.

The total units sold (CD, DVD, VHS, vinyl, etc) for the year were down 8% compared to last year at 318.66 million disks, with revenue down 4% to 391.1 billion yen (over 3.5 billion US dollars), making an average price per disk (or tape, etc) of 1,227 yen, or just over 11 US dollars. Note that this includes both singles and albums. Why the average earnings per disk increased by 4% is not discussed.

Sales of audio-only recordings were down 10% to 266.82 million disks, with a 5% revenue drop to 333.3 billion yen. From that total CD sales were down 10% to 260.34 million disks (representing 97.5% of all sales) and revenue down 5% to 327.2 billion yen. Album sales dropped 11% to 198.65 million disks with revenue down 5% to 280.2 billion yen, making an average price per disk of 1,410 yen or almost US$13 per disk. The biggest loser was Western music, which saw a drop of 23% in unit sales, representing a 17% revenue cut.

On the other hand, music videos were up 6% to 51.85 million disks or tapes with revenue up only 2% to 57.8 billion yen, representing about a 4% drop in price per unit. From that figure, almost all the sales were of DVDs, up 6% to 51.53 million disks with revenue up 3% to 57.4 billion yen.

The sales figures for pay downloads are scheduled to be released towards the end of February.

I think all my readers know my position on the trustworthiness or otherwise of Wikipedia; what I trust as an information source is the Beeb, followed by a few UK newspapers. For information about Japan in English, quite frankly I cannot really trust any commercial source, and those with user feedback are in fact one of the reasons I started WJT. To see what the Japanese themselves trust, as part of their 132nd Ranking Research, DIMSDRIVE Research asked what sources of information people could trust.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 27th of December 2007 4,044 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.5% were female, 13.6% in their twenties, 31.5% in their thirties, 34.6% in their forties, 13.6% in their fifties, and 5.8% aged sixty or older.

Here, the trust being investigated is the reliability or usefulness of the information provided by the site, I believe. Given the high newspaper readership in Japan, it is very surprising that newspapers rate quite low, beaten by portals (which use these very newspapers as their sources!) and even shopping sites!

Other interesting results outside the top 10 were that the Yomiuri Online was the number three newspaper at position 23. kakaku.com was number 13, my favourite comparision shopping and user review site. For communities, mixi was 20th, beaten by the cesspit that is 2 channel, a bulletin board that caters on the whole for racists and tinfoil hats; young men seemed to be those that trusted there the most.

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Top of my list of electrical items to buy for the house is a HDR, or Hard Disk Recorder, the name commonly used for PVRs, Personal Video Recorders, or TiVo-like devices. This survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Cross Marketing or television program recording looks at how these HDRs are used in Japan.

Demographics

Over the 9th and 10th of January 2008 300 members of the Cross Marketing online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50.0% male, with 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

I’ve heard people in Japan talk of how their lives have changed with the advent of the HDR; the biggest plus is for people who have children, as kids can’t wait, but now the television can. When their kid needs attention, the live broadcast can be paused, the child attended to, then the program resumed. Secondly, lots of children’s programs can be saved to disk, and their favourite programs called up at the touch of the button, and scenes they enjoy can be repeated over and over again.
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< ?PHP
include "/home/whatjapa/public_html/libchart/libchart.php";

$chart = new PieChart(400, 200);

$chart->setTitle(“Might you like to buy Apple’s iPhone?”);
$chart->addPoint(new Point(“Yes”, 51.7));
$chart->addPoint(new Point(“No”, 19.3));
$chart->addPoint(new Point(“Don’t know”, 29.0));

$chart->render(“/home/whatjapa/public_html/image08/buy-iphone-jan.png”);
?>

Two days, two mentions of Apple’s iPhone! This time, however, rather than trying to shoehorn it into an existing survey, japan.internet.com reported on a survey by conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into Apple’s iPhone.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 11th of January 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in either the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 80.0% of the sample was male, 10.9% in their twenties, 36.4% in their thirties, 36.1% in their forties, 13.9% in their fifties, and 2.7% in their sixties.

This is also well-timed with regards a report on Forbes about the iPhone (thanks Gen!) which takes the rather safe line that the latest NTT DoCoMo 905i series does everything and more already, and that the price tag is rather prohibitive. Looking at Q1SQ2 below, it seems that almost no-one is willing to pay the price it was initially offered at in the USA, but well over a quarter of the potential customers are willing to pay around the current market value. This also ignores the fact that the previously-mentioned 905i series is selling, and selling well, at over 50,000 yen on a standard pricing plan, and of course the up-front cost is just a fraction of the total cost of ownership. To compare, in the USA the cheapest unlimited data plan costs $59.99 with 450 free minutes, 5,000 evening and weekend minutes, and 45 cents per minute after that, whereas in Japan the cheapest 905i plan is 2,000 yen (excluding tax) for 25 free minutes (300 free minutes would be 8,000 yen!), 400 yen for answering machine and call waiting service, 200 yen for iMode walled-garden functionality, 5,700 yen pake-houdai full unlimited data packet plan for full browser, and then 40 yen per minute afterwards. This makes a USA iPhone cost around $1,839 for two years including $399 for the handset, or about 200,000 yen, versus a minimum 249,200 yen for a 905i series phone including the 50,000 yen handset cost, not forgetting that a Japanese tend to upgrade more frequently than once every two years, making a basic 905i about 25% more expensive than an iPhone. If one compares the package with a similar amount of minutes, the price becomes 393,200 yen, almost double the price! To be generous to NTT DoCoMo, after a year you may become eligible for a 35% discount, rising to 50% after 10 years, so a worst-case scenario is closer to 333,140 yen, only 66% more expensive, and a best-case of 221,600 yen, still 10% more expensive than an iPhone. Similar costs apply to the other main carriers, SoftBank and au.

If you want to read more on the iPhone in Japan, please view my article on why Apple’s iPhone will succeed in Japan, or catch up on all past articles on the iPhone.
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With the recent news that KDDI was tops for net new customers in 2007, it is instructive to look at a recent report on japan.internet.com regarding the 35th regular mobile phone upgrade needs survey conducted by goo Research once a month, every month since April 2004.

Demographics

Over the 20th and 21st of December 2007 exactly 1,000 members of the goo Research monitor group who carried a mobile phone (the reported text says just internet users, but everyone in the survey carried a mobile phone, so the sample must have been pre-screened for mobile phone ownership) completed a private online questionnaire. 50.8% of the sample was male, 1.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 37.4% in their thirties, 28.8% in their forties, and 16.8% aged fifty or older.

With the hype for Apple’s iPhone release in Japan beginning to build up, it is interesting to note that from the list of desired features in Q2, the following are not present on the US or Europe models of that device: external memory card, one seg digital terrestrial or analogue television, infra-red, FeliCa (Osaifu Keitai, electronic wallet), water resistance, GPS, FM, AM or digital radio, document viewer, skinning, and an electronic compass. Present are merely music playback, full browser, Bluetooth, and wireless LAN. Of course, one can argue that the questions were biased towards Japanese phones, but Apple will have to face the same issue of customer bias when they try to sell the iPhone in Japan. However, in Q4 people seem to hold the screen display as key, an area where the iPhone is strong.
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With Coming of Age ceremonies being held mainly on the 14th of January this year, it is timely to look at a recent survey of these soon-to-be adults conducted by MacroMill Inc on the topic of new adults, specifically how they see their future.

Demographics

Over the 20th and 21st of December 2007 516 members of the Macromill monitors who will be attending a Coming of Age ceremony in 2008 completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and of course all were either 19 or 20 years old.

Freeterism seems accetable in certain circumstances to a majority of people in Q7, which was a surprise to me. Freeter is the Japanese word mashed-up from freelance and arbeiter, which is from Arbeit, the German for part time work. It basically means casual labour, flitting between jobs as frequently as from day-to-day; working for a bit, taking time off for a bit.

In Q9, with just a slender majority happy to be able to drink might indicate a significant group of under-age drinkers, and as for smoking, I think it is safe to say that there must be a lot of kids who are already nicotine addicts!
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With Coming of Age ceremonies being held mainly on the 14th of January this year, it is timely to look at a recent survey of these soon-to-be adults conducted by MacroMill Inc on the topic of new adults, specifically how they see their future.

Demographics

Over the 20th and 21st of December 2007 516 members of the Macromill monitors who will be attending a Coming of Age ceremony in 2008 completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and of course all were either 19 or 20 years old.

One thing that always puzzles and suprises a lot of foreigners about Coming of Age is that ceremonies are held in Disneyland, and many people target getting a photo taken with Mickey Mouse. One would think that becoming an adult would mean throwing away the trappings of youth, and one gets the feeling that they are not saying goodbye to Mickey et al, but see you later; now as wage earners, they can visit the mouse at home under their own steam.

Although many seem to be quite positive regarding their own future, the number seeing Japan in a positive light in Q3 is depressing, and that is an issue I’d love to see explored further some time. I wonder how much is due to pensions, given Q5, but since there seems a high degree of interest in politics and elections in Q6, do these new adults view it as something they cannot change?
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Sillyness will be a day early this week, due to a more appropriate post due on Sunday and Monday! Here’s a great ranking survey from goo Ranking, one arm of the best online polling organisation in Japan, on what appearance makes a man appear like an otaku, and what makes a woman look like a otaku.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of November 2007 1,101 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample was female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 10.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score reported is the relative number of votes each choice got, not the percentage of the sample that chose each option.

Particularly for the male answers, otaku has strong connotations of being an anime or manga freak, rather than the slightly more generic use of someone who’s heavily into any hobby, judging by the answers below!
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