世論 What Japan Thinks

With the worries about “stranger danger” in Japan far outweighing the reality of the situation, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research on the topic of children and mobile phones.

Demographics

On the 6th of June 2007 JR Tokai Express Research received 330 successfully-completed questionnaires from members of its internet monitor group aged between 30 and 59. 73.0% of the sample was female, 49.1% in their thirties, 33.9% in their forties, and 17.0% in their fifties.

Some of the proposed systems for tracking children are in my opinion worse than the original problem and are robbing children of their childhood.
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Here’s a subject that I’m covering for the first time on this site, hair. Japanese men don’t seem to lose their hair as much as western people, and there seems to be a high degree of use of hair dyes and hair growth products amongst older men, and far too many young women stain their lovely natural blacks with brown, or even worse blonde dyes. To find out what the average Japanese person does, I now present a report by infoPLANT on a survey they conducted into the usage of hair care and hair styling products.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 29th of May 2007 infoPLANT promoted a questionnaire publicly accessible through the NTT DoCoMo iMode menu system. 6,028 people self-selected themselves, with 65.2% of the sample being female. 3.0% were in their teens, 31.9% in their twenties, 42.7% in their thirties, 19.0% in their forties, and 3.4% aged fifty or older.

I’m personally just setting out on the beginings of your common-or-garden male-pattern baldness, or かっぱ状態, kappa joutai, as my wife so endearingly calls it, namely looking like the legendary frog, only with the bald spot instead of a saucer on top of my head. I personally have no interest in any methods of disguise, and my hair care is nothing more than using a standard cheap conditioner after hair washing.

Note in the headline oyaji means middle-aged man, and the onset can be as early as thirty, as it is as much a state of mind as a physical condition.
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If you asked a group of western foreigners what kindnesses they thought the Japanese were failing to do, undoubtedly Ladies First would appear near the top of the list. However, when goo Ranking asked the Japanese what kindnesses they themselves couldn’t do, Ladies First appeared nowhere on the list, not due to all Japanese men thinking they always show respect, but just due to the fact that Ladies First is not a concept that appears anywhere in Japanese etiquette.
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Perhaps I just don’t get enough phone calls and mail, but I’ve never had the experience of having my mobile phone battery run out on me. However, I have recently started regularly recharging my mobile at work as I got as a free gift at a conference a USB cable with multiple adaptors for recharging mobile phones and other devices. To discover what other people do about their mobile batteries, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into mobile phone batteries.

Demographics

Over the 30th and 30th of May 2007 300 mobile phone-using members of Cross Marketing Inc’s online monitor group successfully completed an online questionnaire. The sample was exactly 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.

Although battery technology is progressing and integrated hardware reduces the power consumption required for many features, as phones sprout more and more features and the manufacturers are pressed by market demands to reduce weight, the battery is often the first component to get slimmed down.

Note that for DoCoMo at least, and perhaps the other makers too, if you have kept the same phone for over two years they will give you a new battery pack free if you ask.

Note also that I reported on a similar survey on mobile phone batteries last year.
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With the Japanese market getting frankly rather crowded, with new electronic money services being launched every other week it seems, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by goo Research on the matter of Osaifu Keitai, or mobile phone electronic wallets.

Demographics

Between the 31st of May and the 2nd of June 2007 1,093 members of goo Research’s online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample was male, 17.1% in their teens, 19.5% in their twenties, 18.0% in their thirties, 17.6% in their forties, 16.6% in their fifties, and 11.2% aged sixty or older.

Most new mobile phones are equipped with the FeliCa chip, the RFID electronics from Sony that powers almost all the smart cards in Japan, so it is perhaps not terribly surprising that the awareness of Osaifu Keitai is so high. I’ve actually never owned a phone with the chip, however.
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2 Channel is the bulletin board system that mkes all the news in Japan, usually for all the wrong reasons! It is a cess-it, albeit an extremely popular cess-pit, always ready to pounce on the latest scandal and spread much muck, along with the all to rare smidgeon of truth. To learn more about what people get out of these boards, japan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey by JR Tokai Express Research on the very topic of internet bulletin board usage.

Demographics

On the 16th of May 2007 JR Tokai Express Research interviewed 330 people by means of a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.5% of the sample was female, 22.4% in their twenties, 36.7% in their forties, 23.9% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 6.1% in their sixties.

About the only bulletin board I’m active on these days is the Digital Point forums.
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With summer coming up soon and thoughts turning towards travel, NEPRO Japan recently published the results of a survey it conducted on the topic of mobile phones and holidays. Here holidays covers everything from day trips to overseas travel.

Demographics

Over the 10th and 11th of May 2007 3,866 self-selecting users chose to complete a survey made available through the three major mobile menuing systems; NTT DoCoMo’s iMode, SoftBank’s Yahoo! Keitai, and au’s EZweb. 58% of the respondents were female, 3% in their teens, 34% in their twenties, 44% in their thirties, and 19% aged forty or older. As has been noted before for infoPLANT surveys, the self-selecting sample nature tends to attract heavy mobile phone users.

This is a rather disappointing study as a number of questions that I think should be multiple choice are asked as single answer ones, for instance. When we’ve been on domestic travel, we’ve never used our mobiles for anything other than just email or photographs, and international travel packet charges are too high to even contemplate taking a live mobile along, although wifey does take hers as an address book.
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Having heard a little about people accessing blogs and Social Networking Services (SNSs) from mobile phones, I obtained a lot of useful information from a recently-published report from infoPLANT on a survey they conducted into the use of blogs and SNSs from mobile phones and personal computers.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 22nd of May 2007 3,709 people self-selected themselves to complete a public survey offered through the NTT DoCoMo iMode menuing system. 61.9% of the sample was female.

This is one of those surveys that made me quite literally gasp! Although I know that the self-selecting nature of infoPLANT polls does bias towards heavy mobile phone users on unlimited plans, with the percentage of people on these kinds of plans increasing all the time, perhaps these figures suggest a general trend away from the computer and towards the mobile phone as the main portal for accessing the internet.
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With keyboarding skills becoming a more and more important ability to have in the modern world, although some might argue that in Japan it is mobile phone thumbing speed that is the key, japan.internet.com recently reported on a rather interesting survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into touch-typing abilities.

Demographics

Over the 23th and 24th of May 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing Inc’s online monitor panel completed a private internet-based survey. The sample was split exactly 50:50 male and female, 20.0% of the respondents were in their teens, 20.0% were in their twenties, 20.0% were in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

I can touch-type to a certain extent, although I’m sure I’d not win many prizes for my accuracy. One result I’d have like to have seen is what keyboard layout people used; not QWERTY versus Dvorak, but for Japanese entry Romaji versus Kana input, which is basically either spelling things using the latin alphabet or spelling using the native Japanese kana alphabet.
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With the advent of summer heralding the cockroach season, now might be a good time to stock up on various chemicals ready to murder the poor blighters should they make an appearance. So, why not buy the weapons of mass destruction that have been recommended by the readers of goo Rankings when they voted on which commercial insecticide they use the most to kill cockroaches. The survey was conducted on the 19th and 20th of April 2007.

The Japanese for cockroach is ゴキブリ, gokiburi, just in case you are interested.
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