世論 What Japan Thinks

goo Ranking has a survey that shines a little bit of light in a corner of Japanese culture that gives me the willies, quite frankly, with a look at why people fall out of love with a liked idol.

Demographics

Over the 9th and 10th of January 2013 1,072 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.4% of the sample were female, 8.5% in their teens, 14.1% in their twenties, 29.8% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 10.4% in their fifties, and 10.2% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

The idol culture (note that both boys and girls can be idols) is a bit scary at times, in particular the grown men who chase AKB48. From a female point of view, I would guess that Takarazuka Revue stars would be considered idols.
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This is a survey that I hope goo Research will make into a series, their look at tablet devices, as reported by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 3rd of February 2013 1,087 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

Note that the one-sixth in the title refers to the one-sixth of the population that are members of goo Research, so there might be a positive bias towards tablet owners, but on the other hand one can imagine reasons why there might also be a negative bias.

A tablet is something I’d like to buy for the house for the times when I cannot be bothered booting up my netbook just to check the headlines or the like. The seven-inch Google Nexus tablet seems like a good fit for what I need.
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japan.internet.com reported on a survey by TIMES-CURRENT into Japanese women’s hair; although the article wanted to draw the conclusion in the headline, I would reckon it is more that women who are attractive put more effort into their hair. The full Japanese-language report may be accessed here.

Demographics

At some unspecified point in time and by some unspecified sampling methodology, 358 businesswomen and 353 businessmen living within the Tokyo area (Tokyo itself plus Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures) completed a survey. 33.5% of the women were in their twenties, 33.5% in their thirties, and 33.0% in their forties; for the men, 31.7% were in their twenties, 34.0% in their thirties, and 34.3% in their forties.

I am fortunate that my wife has the traditional Japanese wonderful long straight black hair; well, actually it’s a very dark brown, and she used to get into trouble in school for being suspected of dyeing it…
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goo Ranking took a look at what awful in-car smells would you be unable to tell the driver about.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of December 2012 1,059 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.4% of the sample were female, 10.8% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 28.8% in their forties, 11.5% in their fifties, and 9.6% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

It’s got to be ciggie smells for me too, followed closely by too much Magic Tree (are they still popular?), usually used to mask said ciggies! Here’s a car that probably manages to avoid number 12 only…

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goo Ranking asked their survey group to choose the times they come to want to quit using SNS (Social Network Services).

Demographics

Over the 9th and 10th of January 2013 1,072 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.4% of the sample were female, 8.5% in their teens, 14.1% in their twenties, 29.8% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 10.4% in their fifties, and 10.2% aged sixty or older. 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’m not much for SNS and it doesn’t really bother me what others think, but if I consider blogging instead, number three has to be my biggest downer!
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goo Ranking asked women from their monitor group to choose not in the least unusual ways to fail on Valentine’s Day, which, now that I think about it, is really quite an uninteresting-sounding topic.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of December 2012 1,059 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.4% of the sample were female, 10.8% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 28.8% in their forties, 11.5% in their fifties, and 9.6% aged sixty or older. 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 for the women only.

It’s amazing the pictures one can find on Flickr – here’s a chocolate heart that has not just melted but also been run over by a car!

My wife had an experience today of leaving the buying until too late, and finding all the good stuff sold out!
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japan.internet.com recently reported on the highlights of a survey from goo Research looking at cloud services.

Demographics

Beween the 22nd and 25th of January 2013 1,094 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internert-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 13.2% in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 17.6% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 17.6% aged sixty or older.

I think this survey defines “cloud service” as “any service you have used on your local computer but now (also) use on the internet”, which is not my understanding. Cloud services to me imply a dynamic use model, so for storage, instead of signing up to a 50 Gb for $5 plan as is the usual model, instead you pay 10 cents per Gb uploaded and 5 cents per Gb downloaded. Mind you, now I think about it, from the service provider’s point of view they are providing a cloud service; I know that some online storage providers with flat-rate models actually use Amazon’s pay-per-use system at the back-end, and even something as boring as a shopping site may be located in a cloud service to cope with the ebb and flow in demand.
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With Valentine’s Day almost upon us, goo Ranking published the results of a ranking survey into heartstring tugging ways of passing Valentine’s chocolates, and as is the tradition in Japan, it was for men receiving them from women.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of December 2012 1,059 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.4% of the sample were female, 10.8% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 28.8% in their forties, 11.5% in their fifties, and 9.6% aged sixty or older. 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 for the women only.

Note that there are two kinds of chocolates; obligatory chocolates that have to be handed out to every male in one’s workplace or class that have no romantic significance, and true love chocolates, the meaning of which should be obvious!

I don’t think I’d be really too impressed with any of the below, myself, except of course the no beating about the bush of number four!
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japan.internet.com recently reported on an interesting survey from Trend Micro into Android smartphone usage. Actually, no survey title was given in the article, but that is probably close enough to the theme.

Demographics

Towards the end of 2012 316 people between the ages of 18 and 59 who had changed from a feature phone to Android in 2012 completed a web-based questionnaire, although it is not clear how they were selected or if the survey was private or not.

Note that Galapagos in the title comes from a frequently-used term for Japanese feature phone which have evolved in isolation to devices uniquely suited for their environment, but unable to establish a foothold anywhere else in the world.
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goo Ranking recently published the results of a pair of ranking surveys into when girls wish they could be reborn as boys, and when boys wish they could be rebord as girls.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of December 2012 1,059 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.4% of the sample were female, 10.8% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 28.8% in their forties, 11.5% in their fifties, and 9.6% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Here’s a guy enjoying number 2, both 6s, and perhaps even the first 9.

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