世論 What Japan Thinks

With today being Husband and Wife Day in Japan – the date is 11/22, and one way of pronoucing the numbers is ii fuufu, or in kanji 良い夫婦, which means “Good Husband and Wife” – here is a short but perhaps sweet survey from goo Ranking on the secrets of maintaining that newlywed feeling. As usual, no demographics information bar that the data was collected between the 25th and 27th of September 2007. Presumably the respondents were all married. Separate rankings for male and female would have been welcome, but perhaps that wouldn’t be in keeping with the spirit of the day.

What’s your secret? Mine is plently of hugs.
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I couldn’t do this web site without Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC close at hand to help me out whenever I get stuck. I can’t remember the last time I actually picked up a paper dictionary, although my Canon Wordtank portable electronic dictionary also sees a lot of action. I’ve got a translation tool at the office, but it’s so hefty it’s impractical to use for single word look up. To find out what the average Japanese person does, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into portable electronic dictionaries.

Demographics

On the 14th of November 2007 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor pool employed in either public or private enterprises successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 82.7% of the sample was male, 8.2% in their twenties, 38.8% in their thirties, 39.1% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

Talking of dictionaries, perhaps one of the best Japanese-English ones (especially if you already have a DS) is the Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten DS pictured above, as you get full pen input for a start, a feature found in none bar the most expensive specialised portable electronic dictionaries.
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Regardless of the headline above, there is of course always a difference between the rated speed and the actual speed that one achieves, and even though nearly two in five are on fiber-optic-based FTTH, often shared lines into apartments are capped at 10 Mbps per dwelling to help prevent one person hogging all the bandwidth. This was one of the findings from an article published on japan.internet.com reporting on a survey conducted by goo Research into the internet environment, with the column focusing on home connection speed in particular.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 18th of November 2007 1,098 members of the goo Research internet monitor group responded to a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.8% of the sample was male, 17.6% were in their teens, 19.3% in their twenties, 15.8% in their thirties, 17.1% in their forties, 18.3% in their fifties, and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

I’m basically happy with my connection speed, and I blame any site slowness as much on the internet in general as on the last mile in particular.

Perhaps you are wondering what the average person does with this fat pipe, in particular are they running P2P programs. Well, it just so happens that just recently another survey was conducted on P2P software usage in Japan, which might provide an interesting point of cross-reference.
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It’s been a while since I last looked at P2P (Peer-to-Peer) software; although it is still a big issue in Europe and the USA with many organised piracy rings and individuals getting their collars felt for illegal file-sharing, what is the current situation in Japan, where government workers seem to have perfected the fine art of losing secret information through ill-configured file-sharing software? To find out some of the answers, japan.internet.com presented the results of a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into the use of Winny and other P2P filesharing software.

Demographics

On the 13th of November 2007 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research Inc’s online monitor pool employed in the private or public sector successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 7.9% of the sample were in their twenties, 40.0% in their thirties, 34.8% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 4.5% in their sixties. The split of the sexes is not reported, but recent surveys by JR Tokai Express Research with samples taken from employed people have had around 82% male and 18% female respondents.

In Q1SQ3, I don’t know if the worry about infringing copyright is from the point of view of not wanting to deprive artists, or if it is due to a fear of being caught doing it, although the wording suggests its the stealing aspect that was considered when answering, not the subsequent chance of being arrested for possession.

In addition, only 3.4% complained about their connection speed, because as another recent survey shows, the vast majority of Japanese have fat pipes.
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This is another one of these surveys that I particularly like, taking a look at a slightly obscure topic and revealing just a little bit of trivial information regarding the habits of many Japanese, and I hope my readers enjoy them too! This time japan.internet.com reported on a survey by Cross Marketing Inc into computers at home.

Demographics

Over the 31st of October and 1st of November 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing’s online monitor group who use a computer at home successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. As usual for this survey company, there was a 50:50 split by sex, 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.

Chez Ken Y-N actually has a study, or more precisely a spare bedroom that acts as a cupboard, but with a computer desk squeezed into one corner. In Q2 I was surprised that at most one person actually uses a laptop as a laptop. Unfortunately there was no information provided on what percentage of the machines were desktop versus laptops.
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I’m already seeing a trickle of 2007 wrap-up surveys, so here is a good Silly Sunday one from goo Ranking on what trendy items from 2007 did people end up buying on impulse. The fieldwork for this survey was carried out on the 24th and 25th of October 2007.

Note that some items are linked to shops, so please feel free to make impulse purchases yourself!
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With communication and community being two of the driving forces behind many new web sites, and indeed being two of the building blocks of Web 2.0, it is instructive to have a look at this survey recently reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Corss Marketing Inc into internet communication.

Demographics

On the 7th and 8th of November 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing’s online monitor pool successfully completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% were in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

Looking at the results of this survey, it is fair to conclude that the average Japanese internet user is not an anti-social git!
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[part 1][part 2]

The Cabinet Office Japan recently published the results of a survey they performed into cancer issues.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 23th of September 2007 3,000 adults selected at random from the whole Japanese population were visited for the purpose of face-to-face interviews. 1,767 people, or 58.9% were available and consented to be interviewed. 53.6% were female, 9.4% were in their twenties, 16.6% in their thirties, 15.1% in their forties, 19.9% in their fifties, 21.6% in their sixties, and 17.3% aged seventy or older. Furthermore, 74.3% had either themselves had cancer or had had family, relations or close colleagues who had experienced cancer.

I’d not heard about a national cancer registry before, but some searching on the internet revealed this overview on what the national cancer registries are used for in the UK.

Most Westerns will be surprised by Q13 where less than a third say that the government should put effort into cancer prevention, even though tobacco was specifically mentioned and in Q2 most quitting smoking was chosen as the measure most people had taken to reduce their risks. The reasons for this include that Japanese see smoking as a personal choice, not something that the government should be getting involved in, although given that the government owns a majority stake in Japan Tobacco, it’s already in the cancer business.
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[part 1][part 2]

The Cabinet Office Japan recently published the results of a survey they performed into cancer issues.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 23th of September 2007 3,000 adults selected at random from the whole Japanese population were visited for the purpose of face-to-face interviews. 1,767 people, or 58.9% were available and consented to be interviewed. 53.6% were female, 9.4% were in their twenties, 16.6% in their thirties, 15.1% in their forties, 19.9% in their fifties, 21.6% in their sixties, and 17.3% aged seventy or older. Furthermore, 74.3% had either themselves had cancer or had had family, relations or close colleagues who had experienced cancer.

Once again there is a complete failure to mention the cancer that in 2020 will become the second most common cancer in Japan for men, namely prostate cancer, according to official projections of incidence of cancer amongst the general population. Breast cancer is much more sexy, as it were, for television, as even women would agree they’d much prefer to watch a mammary gland self-examination than a prostate one…

In Q2, I was suprised by the high percentage of people not eating burnt food – I thought the risks from this were rather minimal, but I suppose rather safe than sorry. I don’t really know what the mold one is though.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into 2007′s web trends. Ahh, the first “… of the year” survey for 2007.

Demographics

On the 9th of November 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group who were employed in private or public industry successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 80.9% of the sample was male, 10.9% in their twenties, 43.0% in their thirties, 33.0% in their forties, 10.0% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

The only buzzword that was presented translated into Japanese is “wisdom of the crowds”, becoming 集合知, shuugouchi, although that did very little to aid understanding. In Q2, only about a sixth claim not to know what ubiquitous is, an awareness I doubt native English speakers could duplicate! That figure does seem rather fishy to me, or perhaps the question was framed by presenting a short Japanese explanation of the term.
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