世論 What Japan Thinks

Aeon Cinema, a cinema operator, recently released the results of a survey into cinema-going habits.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of January 2014 1,204 members of the public from all over Japan completed an internet questionnaire, although it is not specified how the sample was selected. 50.2% of the sample were male, 19.9% in their twenties, 19.9% in their thirties, 19.9% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.1% aged sixty or older.

Last year I probably managed about six or so movies, mostly western human drama stories. I find action and SF movies these days a bit too loud and intense; the one I went to last year was Total Recall, which was pretty atrocious.

From this summer, though, I qualify for the old folks discount at my usual chain, so perhaps I’ll be seeing more movies in the second half of the year? For the first half, I want to see Rush and The Hobbit part two, both of which are not out here yet.
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With just three days to go until the start of the Sochi Olympics, this seemed a good time to publish the results of a survey by Intage into awareness of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 17th of January 2014 exactly 1,000 members of the Intage-run Cue Monitor site completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in each of the age groups of twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and sixties.

The pie chart above is interesting because the Japan Olympic Committee has set a target of outdoing their performance at Nagano in 1998 where they won 10 medals, including five gold. I think that is unobtainable, particularly five golds, but unlike the majority of respondents, I can see around seven to nine medals being obtained. Wee Sara Takanashi is a shoo-in for gold in the ski jump, figure skating might see a gold for Mao Asada and one or two other places, along with a couple of speed skating medals. Add in a couple of good performances in other sports and we have two gold and six of other colours.

I’m moderately interested in the games myself, but I’ll probably not do much more than watch the highlights on the news, I suspect.
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I don’t know how these numbers compare with elsewhere in the world, but the results of this survey from VLC (Value Create) into toilets produced a few quite interesting results.

Demographics

Over the 19th and 20th of September 2013 1,045 members of VL Crew completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in each of the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and sixties age groups.

My home toilet has both a heated seat (lovely) and a bum squirter (yuk!). I used it once or twice when we first got it, but quite frankly I couldn’t see the point, and all the water down there melts toilet paper when I try to dry off afterwards.
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Today’s survey from goo Ranking looks at Japanese-English, words that are English (or have their roots in English but have taken on distinct Japanese meanings. Specifically, the survey was about Japanese-English words people were unaware that they were Japanese-English only.

Demographics

The survey was conducted from the 21st to the 23rd of November 2013, and 1,054 people completed a private web-based questionnaire. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I once tried to explain to a Japanese person that “speed up”, “slow down” and “slow up” were perfectly valid, but the Japanese-English “speed down” was nonsense in English!
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Mobile Marketing Data Laboratories recently conducted a pair of parallel surveys into smartphone map app usage and smartphone schedule app usage.

Demographics

Both surveys were conducted between the 18th and 21st of December 2013. The map survey had 556 respondents, and the schedule one 560. All the respondents were pre-screened as smartphone users, and for the map survey 232 people, or 41.7% were iPhone users, and the remaining 324 people (58.3%) were Android users. No further demographic information was provided.

I don’t use maps on my private phone, and my wife serves as my calendar! She has both a smartphone and a standard feature phone, but she manages her schedule on the feature phone only, mainly because the battery life is better and it can do things like switch itself on when alarms ring.
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goo Ranking decided to figuratively peek behind the curtain in women’s sento, Japanese public baths, to see what sort of things tend to happen in the bathing area.

Demographics

The survey was conducted from the 21st to the 23rd of November 2013, and 1,054 people completed a private web-based questionnaire. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample. This question was obviously only for the women in the sample.

Here is a typical sento bathhouse entrance:

Obviously, I’m not qualified to comment on my experiences related to this survey, although I will note that the only positive answer is number seven; I assume that getting chatted to by grannies might or might not be a positive experience, depending on the person.
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An interesting, I suppose, survey from Lucido, a brand of men’s toiletries, where they conducted a survey into women’s perceptions of the smell of men in their thirties and forties.

Demographics

During the month of December 2013 534 women aged between 25 and 49 years old completed a private (I think) internet-based questionnaire. No further demographics were provided.

This male age band was chosen because one’s youthful hormones are fading, but are yet to be overtaken by old person smell, a smell which Lucido have named “Middle Fat Smell”, with an associated web site, which no doubt explains that said smell can be countered by ample application of Lucido’s product.

Actually, my wife has recently started mentioning that I smell (in a good way, she assures me!), although I do worry that I am developing Old Person Smell. However, this Scientific American article assures me that in blind sniff tests, it was actually rated more pleasant than young folks!
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Tonight’s goo Ranking is a look at what words or actions by other people in the office annoy the Japanese.

Demographics

The survey was conducted during the 31st of October and the 1st of November 2013, and 1,060 people completed a private web-based questionnaire. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

In the office, I do number 4, the first 6, 19, and the second 20. What annoys me but I cannot say anything about is frequent snorting back in of a runny nose, and people clipping nails; it’s both the sound of metal against metal and the clip noise that sets my teeth on edge.
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japan.internet.com recently published the highlights of a survey by Macromill into 2014′s new adults, where they chose to focus on SNS and friends.

Demographics

On the 5th of December 2013 Macromill interviewed 500 members of their monitor panel who would be coming of age (20 years old) in 2014 through a private internet-based questionnaire. The sex split is not noted, but Macromill usually have a 50:50 ratio.

Note that in Q3 and the pie chart above, the Japanese word for “friend” used is a word that usually refers to real-life friends. Facebook friends use a different word, so the number reported was not just a simple totting up of one’s followers.
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Recently there seems to have been quite a lot of projection mapping going on, so this survey from goo Research decided to have a look at this very subject of projection mapping.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 18th of December 2013 1,085 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.8% of the sample were male, 13.5% in their teens, 15.9% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 17.1% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 17.2% aged sixty or older.

Here’s one I’d love to have seen, taking place last year just 10 kilometres or so away from me:

I’m not sure how accurate the results of Q1SQ1 are; although the Japanese text used a generic “see” verb rather “watch”, I wonder if many people assumed that the question was directed towards watching live, as the percentages seem a bit off to me. On the other hand, as there does not seem to have been an explanation of the term Projection Mapping, I also wonder if more people saw news reports on projection mapping but didn’t realise what it was?
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