One complaint I often hear from fellow foreigners in Japan is that the cost of having kids is expensive, if not prohibitive, although I often have a suspicion that those saying it have an axe to grind and are inflating costs, much like those Westerners who constantly complain about racist behaviour as if it were a daily occurance. However, perhaps another reason that foreigners find childbirth, or the prospect thereof, a scary prospect is that they are not aware of all the support that local governments provide to parents. With this in mind, perhaps some of my readers with young children will find this survey by goo Research into child medical fees and child-rearing support informative.
Demographics
Between the 3rd and 9th of July 2007 1,989 members of goo Research’s online monitor pool with children of middle school or younger ages successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 51.4% of the sample was female, 28.6% in their twenties, 29.0% in their thirties, 25.4% in their forties, and 17.0% aged fifty or above.
The biggest help for new parents is a lump sum from the local government on the birth of a child, with the same amount being offered to all parents regardless of income levels, usually 400,000 yen, which is enough to cover most straightforward births. However, it is interesting to note that in Q2 and Q3 about one in six has not heard of and doesn’t plan to take advantage of this money.
My employer also pays a child support allowance, but the value of it barely covers the nappy bill, I would guess! Read the rest of this entry »
This is one of these surveys reports where there are eyebrow-raising statistics reported and I’d love to get my hands on the fuller results. At my place of work, for instance, I’ve worked with two women who were extremely capable but were very slow to get promoted to the management layer, with one of them, I suspect, held back by being a working mother and working mostly to regulation hours, despite the fact that she was extremely organised and could get everything done as required without needing to stay to 10pm every night in pointless meetings.
So, japan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into working women’s attitudes.
Demographics
On the 27th of July 2007 330 women from the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group who worked in private industry took part in a private internet-based questionnaire. 100.0% were female, of course, 24.2% were in their twenties, 48.2% in their thirties, 24.2% in their forties, and 3.3% in their fifties.
For those studying Japanese, note that the word used the the questions below was 格差, kakusa, which translates to disparity rather than perhaps 差別, sabetsu, discrimination. I’m not sure how the different wordings might have affected the responses; for me “disparity” describes the state of the workplace, whereas “discrimination” suggests active policies favouring men, so perhaps it is easier for women to describe their office as having disparity? Read the rest of this entry »
Although there seems quite a disparity between the list presented below and Dark Diamond’s report on the top 100 anime of all time and Japan Probe’s reports on the top 50 according to Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, I hope this list can spark similar debates as to what are the classics from the last decade, or that had at least some episodes first broadcast in the 1990′s. So, without any further ado, I present the top thirty 1990′s anime that the Japanese would most like to see once again. Note that this list contains only series whose run has ended. The data was collected from an unspecified number of members of goo Research’s online monitor pool between the 20th and 24th of July 2007. The scores represent the relative number of votes each anime series received relative to the number one selection. Here’s a short clip from YouTube of the top anime.
Last year two of the big stories in Japan were children killing themselves due to bullying, and group suicides with people meeting over the internet in suicide clubs. Regardless of how tragic each incident is, these types of suicides make up just a few percentage points of the overall figures, with physical ill-health in older people being the main trigger for suicides. To find out what the average Japanese thinks, the Cabinet Office of Japan sponsored an opinion poll on the topic of building a healthy heart (suicide prevention methods).
Demographics
3,000 adults were selected randomly from the Japanese voter lists and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Of the original sample, 1,728 answered the questionnaire, a response rate of 57.6%. 54.7% of the sample was female, 8.1% in their twenties, 15.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 22.0% in their fifties, 21.1% in their sixties, and 17.6% aged seventy or older.
Note that the buzzword for the suicide prevention methods is こころの健康づくり, kokoro no kenkou-zukuri, literally translated as building a healthy heart.
Perhaps I’m lucky, but my employer carries out all the activities in Q10. Whether or not anyone acts on the information provided is another matter altogether, of course! Read the rest of this entry »
Last year two of the big stories in Japan were children killing themselves due to bullying, and group suicides with people meeting over the internet in suicide clubs. Regardless of how tragic each incident is, these types of suicides make up just a few percentage points of the overall figures, with physical ill-health in older people being the main trigger for suicides. To find out what the average Japanese thinks, the Cabinet Office of Japan sponsored an opinion poll on the topic of building a healthy heart (suicide prevention methods).
Demographics
3,000 adults were selected randomly from the Japanese voter lists and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Of the original sample, 1,728 answered the questionnaire, a response rate of 57.6%. 54.7% of the sample was female, 8.1% in their twenties, 15.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 22.0% in their fifties, 21.1% in their sixties, and 17.6% aged seventy or older.
Note that the buzzword for the suicide prevention methods is こころの健康づくり, kokoro no kenkou-zukuri, literally translated as building a healthy heart.
Although Q5 indicates the majority of people would seek professional help for depression, I suspect there is quite a gap between what people say here and what they actually would do. Read the rest of this entry »
Last year two of the big stories in Japan were children killing themselves due to bullying, and group suicides with people meeting over the internet in suicide clubs. Regardless of how tragic each incident is, these types of suicides make up just a few percentage points of the overall figures, with physical ill-health in older people being the main trigger for suicides. To find out what the average Japanese thinks, the Cabinet Office of Japan sponsored an opinion poll on the topic of building a healthy heart (suicide prevention methods).
Demographics
3,000 adults were selected randomly from the Japanese voter lists and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Of the original sample, 1,728 answered the questionnaire, a response rate of 57.6%. 54.7% of the sample was female, 8.1% in their twenties, 15.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 22.0% in their fifties, 21.1% in their sixties, and 17.6% aged seventy or older.
Note that the buzzword for the suicide prevention methods is こころの健康づくり, kokoro no kenkou-zukuri, literally translated as building a healthy heart.
I feel Q3 is flawed. The statements do not have simple yes/no answers, so perhaps either degrees of agreement or opinions on the frequency of such occurances would have been more illuminating. Read the rest of this entry »
If you’ve ever lived in the Kansai area of Japan, you’ll surely have heard of the reputation of Osaka old ladies for their distinctive characteristics such as… Well, let’s just see what comes to mind when the Japanese think of Osaka grannies in this fun survey from goo Ranking. The fieldwork was done between the 19th and 21st of June 2007 amongst people from all over Japan.
KANJANI8 (or 関ジャニ∞ to use their Japanese name) sing a song “Osaka Obachan (old lady/granny) Rock” that can be viewed here, assuming it doesn’t get pulled due to copyright violations:
In an attempt to jump onto two bandwagons at once, I couldn’t resist that headline to go with recent research from Yahoo! Japan Value Insight (ex-INFOPlant) on weight loss diets. The results presented below are just the highlights of the full report consisting of twenty-one questions, ten on diets in general, eleven on Billy’ Boot Camp in particular.
Demographics
Over the 27th and 28th of July 2007 400 members of Value Insight’s online questionnaire panel successfully completed a private questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% in their fifties.
The title of this article comes from comparing the awareness figures for this survey versus the awareness of another big thing in Japan, the iPhone. About seven or eight in ten have heard of the iPhone, whereas 85% have heard of Billy Blanks’ diet; indeed in the key female dieting age range from 20 to 49 over 99% of the women have at least heard his name! Read the rest of this entry »
Between the 1st and 5th of July 2007 14,119 members of the MyVoice internet community answered a private internet-based questionnaire. 57% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.
The top-rated foodstuff, Calorie Mate, is also just about the most heavily advertised, notable for the use of Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer) in “24″-like situations.
I hate my mobile phone answering service! I’ve set mine up in English, which is useful, but after I play back the message, there is a prompt saying “Press 2 to save the message.” I do that but it always gets deleted! Is the save only a session save, not a save forever? Is this just DoCoMo’s easy way of avoiding users storing too many voice mail messages? In addition, I find the handset’s built in service is worse than useless. To discover what the average Japanese person thinks, MyVoice surveyed its internet community to find out what they thought about mobile phone answering services.
Demographics
Between the 1st and 5th of July 2007 13,191 members of the MyVoice internet community answered a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.
Most people seem to have some degree of satisfaction with their network-based voice mail, but perhaps this is just people thinking it’s better than just the handset voice mail? Then again, most people are also satisified with the built-in voice mail. Note that DoCoMo charge 300 yen per month for the use of the network answering machine, and the other carriers have similar charges.
One complaint I often hear from fellow foreigners in Japan is that the cost of having kids is expensive, if not prohibitive, although I often have a suspicion that those saying it have an axe to grind and are inflating costs, much like those Westerners who constantly complain about racist behaviour as if it were a daily occurance. However, perhaps another reason that foreigners find childbirth, or the prospect thereof, a scary prospect is that they are not aware of all the support that local governments provide to parents. With this in mind, perhaps some of my readers with young children will find this survey by goo Research into child medical fees and child-rearing support informative.
This is one of these surveys reports where there are eyebrow-raising statistics reported and I’d love to get my hands on the fuller results. At my place of work, for instance, I’ve worked with two women who were extremely capable but were very slow to get promoted to the management layer, with one of them, I suspect, held back by being a working mother and working mostly to regulation hours, despite the fact that she was extremely organised and could get everything done as required without needing to stay to 10pm every night in pointless meetings.
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In an attempt to jump onto two bandwagons at once, I couldn’t resist that headline to go with recent research from Yahoo! Japan Value Insight (ex-INFOPlant) on 
I hate my mobile phone answering service! I’ve set mine up in English, which is useful, but after I play back the message, there is a prompt saying “Press 2 to save the message.” I do that but it always gets deleted! Is the save only a session save, not a save forever? Is this just DoCoMo’s easy way of avoiding users storing too many voice mail messages? In addition, I find the handset’s built in service is worse than useless. To discover what the average Japanese person thinks, MyVoice surveyed its internet community to find out what they thought about 
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