It’s coming up to the new year, so naturally there are a number of New Year Postcard surveys coming out. This time it is japan.internet.com reporting on one by goo Research into nengajo, New Year Postcards – hey, wasn’t the last one also by goo Research?
Demographics
Over the 22nd and 23rd of November 2007 1,093 members of the goo Research online monitor panel successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.9% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.
I ordered the first half of my New Year Cards last night, featuring Hello Kitty in a rat costume, of course. We bought from FujiFilm; if you are still to order, I’ve found an Amazon coupon for a discount on the basic price, free delivery and a 1,000 yen discount off your next order – we used a Cecile coupon, but it wasn’t as good value. Tonight we tried the second half using Kodak, but the web site is pretty useless and we found it impossible to check out and buy the cards!
Instead of the usual graph pictured at the top of the article I’ve got a picture of a mobile phone strap featuring a commemorative Year of the Rat Cat, Kitty chan herself. This can be ordered and delivered all around the world in time for the New Year from the internet’s finest vendor of… ack, you probably all know the sales pitch by heart by now; it’s just 420 yen from Strapya.
With Kirin having previously announced a price rise in beer next February, and with Asahi today also making a similar announcement, it is timely to look at this survey conducted by goo Research in conjunction with the Yomiuri Shimbun into the rise in the price of beer.
Demographics
Little demographic information was given for this survey, bar that 1,092 people over the age of 20 were interviewed at the start of November 2007. Not even the sample sizes for the questions were listed!
It may be interesting to compare the results of this survey with a recent one on the rise in instant ramen prices.
One thing I’ve never understood is that comparable beers from all the three big brewers are the same price, and they are sold at almost the same price everywhere from the largest megastore to the smallest vending machine. Surely they cannot be running a cartel?
Note that currently a 350 millilitre can of beer retails for about 207 yen from a convenience store. Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this year, the Japan Recording-Media Industries Association announced that last year’s sales were below predicted numbers, and they think it will be 2010 before the market flourishes. One reason for this is the confusion between the standards, Blu-ray Disc versus HD DVD, with consumers delaying their purchases to avoid being stuck with another Betamax. To learn what people thought of the situation, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into next-generation DVD.
Demographics
On the 26th of November 2007 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in either the public or private sector successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 82.1% of the sample was male, 8.5% in their twenties, 40.3% in their thirties, 33.6% in their forties, 14.2% in their fifties, and 3.3% in their sixties.
Another reason is perhaps the lack of clear user benefits from upgrading from DVD; on a good system, the higher quality of the next generation is really obvious, but for those with lower-end television the desire to upgrade just their media player is not present. However, this aspect was not addressed in the survey below. Also missing from the report below is details on how many of the owners have stand-alone players versus PS3, Xbox or computer drive owners.
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Now here’s a rather delicate subject to conduct a survey on! From my point of view, the three big everyday lifestyle ailments many Japanese, especially women, seem to suffer from are stiff shoulders, cold hands and feet, and constipation. I have been trying to get to the bottom of the third topic for a while, as it were, so I am pleased to be able to present to my readers the results of a survey by MyVoice into health and constipation.
Demographics
Over the first five days of November 2007 a surprisingly high number of 19,667 members of the MyVoice online community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% were in their teens, 16% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 28% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties.
Just for reference, the word used for bowel movements in this survey was お通じ, otsuuji.
I also like one series of advertisements for a laxative called Collac and their rakko, otters, that look suspiciously like dancing poo. Try the button in the bottom right-hand corner, then either of the two buttons at the bottom right of the next screen. Read the rest of this entry »
Even though shops like Oxfam dress many UK students, charity shops as we might know them in the west basically do not exist in Japan, for various reasons that would be interesting to see investigated through a survey. Indeed, perhaps the full version of this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into used clothes covered that issue, although the highlights below do not.
Demographics
On the 20th of November 2007 334 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.3% of the sample was male, 4.8% in their teens, 16.5% in their twenties, 37.4% in their thirties, 24.3% in their forties, 8.7% in their fities, 7.5% in their sixties, and for the first time ever for a JR Tokai Express Research poll, 0.9% (or three people) were specifically identified as being aged seventy or older.
I’m not sure how the first answer in Q1SQ2 should be read; is this referring to buying pre-worn jeans or the like, or choosing used for everyday wear as one cannot afford new. I’d also like to see cross-referencings between where purchased and why purchased, and also what sorts of clothes. I can image little stigma being attached to picking up a second-hand kimono, but a box of everyday clothes from a fleamarket is a very different kind of purchase. Read the rest of this entry »
Having looked recently at the mobile market situation after one year of mobile number portability, here we look at the logical extension to this service in a report published by japan.internet.com on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into PC and mobile phone email.
Demographics
On the 13th of November 2007 331 members of JR Tokai Express Research’s online monitor group employed in either the public or private sector (JR Tokai Express Research seems to have recently given up on the other demographics) successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.1% were male, 8.8% in their twenties, 42.0% in their thirties, 36.6% in their forties, 10.6% in their fifties, and 2.1% in their sixties.
Most internet service providers offer mail forwarding services, but if you change providers you need to keep paying the old provider a small fee to cover the old address. However, long ago I moved my main private address to one provided by PoBox.com. For a small fee, about $50 every three years I think, they maintain an address that I can forward whereever I want. However, this won’t work for mobile phone email. However, looking at the results for Q1SQ1, it looks like I am the only person willing to pay! Read the rest of this entry »
This week’s Silly Sunday is on silly rules and customs in the office, another ranking survey from goo Ranking. The fieldwork was conducted over the 24th and 25th of October 2007, but no demographic information was given, nor was there a breakdown by sex, sadly.
At my workplace, I wish they’d quit doing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 15, and 27.
For those of you who haven’t worked in Japan, perhaps a few of these options need to be explained. Number 6 and number 9 usually feature together (we actually have lunchtime meetings at my workplace); everyone gathers together, one person (rotated every day) reads the company precepts, then everyone repeats after him or her. Next, the person whose turn it is tells a story perhaps related to work, perhaps not. Other companies may also have pep talks from the boss. Actually, I do think that morning meetings are to some degree useful; ours are relatively painless, barring the company motto reading, of course, and the singing of the company song, which thankfully is not compulsory!
Number 12 is interesting – every Friday after lunch we have to vacuum the office and empty the rubbish bins. I did once ask why we did that but all I got in reply was a blank state wondering why I would question such a thing. Indeed, we even had a suggestion from someone as part of our company-wide stinginess initiative that we should also clean the corridors to save paying cleaners’ wages, an idea demonstrating blissful unawareness of the hourly rate of a cleaner versus that of an engineer.
Oh, and you don’t want to get me started on the complexity of my employer’s internal systems… Read the rest of this entry »
With much of Japan in ever-present danger of being wiped out by an earthquake, and with the recent launch of the earthquake early warning system, the Cabinet Office Japan decided to take a look at earthquake preparedness.
Demographics
Between the 4th and 14th of October 2007 3,000 adults from all over Japan were randomly selected. 1,757 of these took part in face-to-face interviews. Age and sex breakdown was not reported, although Cabinet Office surveys tend to have a more even age spread than other surveys.
If you live in Tokyo, the bad news is that the city is overdue being flattened by the big one; Nagoya is due to be hit by a tsunami, and Osaka will probably get the two for the price of one. We’ve actually just bought emergency kits; actually, it was stored up points from my credit card, so we spent it on two evacuation kits and a table-top stove. I don’t think we have a gas canister for that, though… We usually have a bath tub of water sitting around, but we’ve got a funny toilet that won’t flush when the electricity’s off. If the worst comes to the worst, we plan to evacuate to the next-door town; we live on the border between two, and across the line is a posh school that’s bound to have decent facilities and is slightly closer than our official emergency centre, a dingy, slightly falling down concrete shed.
I haven’t been to karaoke for a number of years, not least due to being so tone deaf that not even the fanciest of karaoke electronic trickery can fix my singing voice. Perhaps some of my readers have, so if so you might recognise the topic of this survey reported by japan.internet.com and performed by Cross Marketing Inc into communication on the internet, with this article focusing in particular on karaoke.
Demographics
Over the 14th and 15th of November 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing’s monitor group successfully completed an internet-based private questionnaire. Each age group 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, and 20.0% in their fifties.
Apparently the end of the year is one of the busy times for karaoke boxes, because when work end-of-year parties finish and talk starts on the subject of the “second party”, the karaoke box is often a popular place to continue drinking. The article also notes a recently-coined word, ヒトカラ, hitokara, or going to karaoke by oneself.
With just a few days to go before the end of November, which means that for residents of Japan planning to send 年賀状, nengajou, New Year Cards for the Year of the Rat, this weekend is your last chance to get a discount for early orders. To see what the Japanese are planning to do this year, goo Research, in conjunction with the Yomiuri Shimbun, performed a survey on New Year Postcards. It may be instructive to look at last year’s survey on New Year Postcards to see how opinions have changed over the last year.
Demographics
Unfortunately little demographic information was reported, bar that the fieldwork was conducted towards the end of October, with 1,082 successful responses received.
For those of you in the USA, or in fact Japan, as they do ship internationally, wanting your own custom New Year cards (or Christmas cards, or any other occasion, may I recommend TinyPrints as a high-quality supplier of personalised stationery, with many card designs starting from just over a dollar per card. Note if you choose to order, enter the code WINTER07 for a 5% discount, expiring on the first of February 2008.
We’ll personally be ordering about 80 cards from 55 station this weekend, and even though the coming year is the Year of the Rat we’ll give Mickey Mouse a miss, instead getting a mix of Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma photo cards. Printing the address on the back of the cards will however be done ourselves at home. Although ordering cards seems expensive up front compared to home printing, once you budget for printer ink, losses due to paper jams, and other required user effort, it’s actually quite reasonable, and the print quality is considerably higher than a standard home ink jet.
Note that in Q1SQ1, the 8% who said they won’t print their New Year Postcards includes those buying pre-printed cards and writing addresses by hand, and those who handmake their own cards. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s coming up to the new year, so naturally there are a number of New Year Postcard surveys coming out. This time it is japan.internet.com reporting on one by goo Research into nengajo, New Year Postcards – hey, wasn’t the last one also by goo Research?
With Kirin having previously announced a price rise in beer next February, and with Asahi today also making a similar announcement, it is timely to look at this survey conducted by goo Research in conjunction with the Yomiuri Shimbun into the 
Earlier this year, the Japan Recording-Media Industries Association announced that last year’s sales were below predicted numbers, and they think it will be 2010 before the market flourishes. One reason for this is the confusion between the standards, Blu-ray Disc versus HD DVD, with consumers delaying their purchases to avoid being stuck with another Betamax. To learn what people thought of the situation, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into 
Now here’s a rather delicate subject to conduct a survey on! From my point of view, the three big everyday lifestyle ailments many Japanese, especially women, seem to suffer from are stiff shoulders, cold hands and feet, and constipation. I have been trying to get to the bottom of the third topic for a while, as it were, so I am pleased to be able to present to my readers the results of a survey by MyVoice into 
Even though shops like 
Having looked recently at the mobile market situation after 
I haven’t been to karaoke for a number of years, not least due to being so tone deaf that not even the fanciest of karaoke electronic trickery can fix my singing voice. Perhaps some of my readers have, so if so you might recognise the topic of this survey reported by japan.internet.com and performed by Cross Marketing Inc into 
With just a few days to go before the end of November, which means that for residents of Japan planning to send 年賀状, nengajou, New Year Cards for the Year of the Rat, this weekend is your last chance to get a discount for early orders. To see what the Japanese are planning to do this year, goo Research, in conjunction with the Yomiuri Shimbun, performed a survey on 
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