世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1][part 2]

We’ve looked before at handsomeness, but this time Macromill Inc looked at the slightly more specific topic of men’s grooming. This report is rather detailed, so apologies in advance!

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of September 2007 515 male members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 20% were aged between 15 and 19, 20% in their twenties, 20% in their thirties, 20% in their forties, and 20% in their fifties. In addition, 282 people, or 54.8%, were not married.

It does seem interesting that almost a third are concerned about sweat-related issues, although there is no follow-on question regarding what people try to do to counter this. However, Q1 in the first half of the survey indicated just under a quarter purchase deodorant, so one does wonder why the extra 5% or more don’t use it.
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[part 1][part 2]

We’ve looked before at handsomeness, but this time Macromill Inc looked at the slightly more specific topic of men’s grooming. This report is rather detailed, so apologies in advance!

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of September 2007 515 male members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 20% were aged between 15 and 19, 20% in their twenties, 20% in their thirties, 20% in their forties, and 20% in their fifties. In addition, 282 people, or 54.8%, were not married.

I find Q1 a bit difficult to understand, especially for basics like shampoo. I find it difficult to believe that 20% don’t wash their hair, but perhaps it is a differentiation between just cheap no-brand no-particular-effect shampoo versus a name brand. Conversely, does only 53.7% using face soap mean the rest just splash with water, or use hand soap, or don’t have a separate hand soap and face soap? Finally, just over half using rinse is surprisingly high to me.
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Following up, I suppose, on a recent ranking survey regarding what were the basic dealbreakers for potential spouses, goo Rankings came up with another entertaining survey looking at what husbands’ bad habits wives want to tell them to fix, but just can’t, and vice versa. The survey was conducted between the 28th and 30th of August 2007.

My wife informs me that she has no bad habits that I should ask her to fix (now that’s a bad habit that doesn’t feature on the list!), but my two main bad habits also don’t feature on the list, namely adjusting the lay of the land, as it were, and noxious gas emissions.

I suppose that number 15 for men and 18 for women is shorthand for a lack of rumpy-pumpy.
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I’m still actually to sign up to any SNS so please don’t ask me for mixi invites, although recently I nearly joined MySpace due to hearing about some punk from my school days. To find out how the average Japanese ends up on mixi or other SNSs (Social Networking Services), japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by goo Research, their 9th regular survey on SNS.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 4th of October 2007 1,086 members of goo Research’s internet monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample was male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve been skipping recent editions of this survey as the reported statistics have not been terribly interesting. However, this time I think the data is worth reporting. I find it interesting that nearly two-thirds of the current users have not actually invited anyone else to join, although given the fact that mixi is so well-established as the market leader, like a pyramid scheme once the market is saturated those at the bottom run out of people to invite as most people who are interested in joining have already joined, perhaps.
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With the recent news about DoCoMo and au by KDDI cutting monthly costs but increasing handset prices, japan.internet.com reported on a timely survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into mobile phone pricing.

Demographics

Over the 3rd and 4th of October 2007 330 mobile phone using members of Cross Marketing’s 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, and 20.0% in their in fifties.

Note that in Q1 the price is for the handset only, not all the accessories too. I paid about 8,000 yen for my last one, but I got a company discount. I feel too that the basic monthly fee is quite high, although lots of discounts get applied to the price. However, due to the multiple discount schemes, separate charges for services, etc, the basic plan fee always stands out as just about the biggest number on my bills.
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The provision of public wireless internet is Japan is pretty terrible. I’ve personally only tried a few times, but either I got no signal or I couldn’t get my hardware configured correctly. One place I’m very surprised that it’s not installed is on the Shinkansen, the Bullet Train. Their latest N700 series now has laptop power plugs on most of the seats, but sadly they chose not to include either wired or wireless internet connections even though mobile phone service is supported on even the older models of trains. So, recently japan.internet.com published the results of a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc (part of the same group that operates the wireless-free Shinkansens) into public wireless LANs.

Demographics

On the 20th of September 2007 334 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel who were employed in either the public or the private sector completed an internet-based questionnaire. 84.1% of the sample was male, 13.2% in their twenties, 35.3% in their thirties, 37.1% in their forties, 12.6% in their fifties, and 1.8% in their sixties.

One other reason, perhaps, that there is not as strong a demand for wireless is that you can get high-speed mobile phone-based access from companies such as EMobile, with their offering of unlimited 3.6 Mbps at a fixed price of just 4,980 yen per month. I’m typing this up in a hotel in Los Angeles that has free wireless in all the rooms and all the public areas, yet when I stayed in a relatively posh hotel in central Osaka a couple of months ago I couldn’t get a signal at all, and there was no mention of wired or wireless service in the hotel information booklet.

Note that this survey covers services in all public areas from stations to hotels via restaurants and cafes. Deliberately leeching off a wide-open domestic router probably doesn’t count!
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I too would love an extra hour in bed at weekdays, but unfortunately one extra hour then would mean both a crowded train and extra overtime, so it’s at 5:30 am I must wake on weekdays. Recently MyVoice conducted a survey to find out how the Japanese feel about the matter, looking at the topic of mornings.

Demographics

Over the first five days of September 2007 13,641 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet survey. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 16% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 15% aged fifty or older.

In Q2SQ and Q4, only 1.8% and 2.1% selected doing the other if they had time in the mornings, which no doubt goes some way to explaining the low birth rate in Japan…
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I’ve never actually ventured into a manga or net cafe myself, as I do have an image of them being dark, slightly dodgy places that smell of stale tobacco and stale otaku. I’m probably completely and utterly wrong, so perhaps in the name of research I should poke my nose in once just to confirm or correct my mental picture! So, as reported by japan.internet.com, recently Cross Marketing Inc looked at internet cafes and manga kissas (comic cafes).

Demographics

Over the 26th and 27th of September 2007 300 people from Cross Marketing Inc’s monitor pool successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sexes were split 50:50, and 20.0% of the respondents 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.

The most often used feature I hear about from fellow foreigners is sleeping! If you miss the last train, dossing down in a net cafe is a cheap option, it seems.
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I’ve looked before at which Office suite Japanese people use, so the basic figures below will perhaps not be so new to my readers, but perhaps there is some new information that can be gleaned from this recent survey reported by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc on the matter of desktop applications in the corporate environment.

Demographics

On the 25th of September 2007 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 84.9% of the sample was male, 11.8% in their twenties, 34.7% in theor thirties, 39.3% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

Of the product categories listed in Q1, I use Microsoft-only for all categories bar the very occasional FileMaker database and I use Notepad2 for my text-based editing needs.
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Here’s a fun survey from goo Ranking on what foreign food chain people would like to see open near to their homes. The survey was conducted between the 28th and 30th of August 2007.

Looking at the list, Subway is about the only one I’d want near to home. Taco Bell seems a curious one to appear in the list; I’m not aware of any in Japan, and Mexican food of any kind is definitely a rarity in Japan.

The still stupidly-popular Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is due to open their second shop on the 12th of October 2007 at Yurakucho in Tokyo, it seems.
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