世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently published the results of research by goo Research into how well IT buzzwords are understood. At the start of July they interviewed 1,033 members of their internet monitor group. 42.6% of the sample was male, 1.8% in their teens, 20.3% in their twenties, 41.9% in their thirties, 23.2% in their forties, 10.4% in their fifties, and 2.2% in their sixties.

Most of the buzzwords seem to get imported straight into Japanese as the English term, be it a complete word or an abbreviation. The rest perhaps just end up as katakana renditions of the term, like, for example, Social Network[ing] Service/Site, which ends up in Japanese as just SNS or Social Network Service or Site spelt out in katakana, which doesn’t really help many Japanese as the word “social”. Actually, there’s already a slang term in Japanese for SNS, 出会い系サイト, deai-kei saito, but perhaps it is loaded with overtones of seedy (or downright fraudulent) dating sites, whereas SNS suggests a different, more Western-style location?
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One of the foods that gaijin don’t eat is, of course, natto, which as any visitor or resident to these shores will tell you is one of the stock food questions to foreigners, “Can you eat natto?”, along with “Can you eat Japanese raw fish?” and “Can you eat anko?” I myself love anko, but natto… Interestingly enough, natto is mostly a Tokyo or Northern Japan delicacy; many (I think the majority, if I could find a survey!) of people from the Kansai area turn their noses up at it, including, thankfully, my wife, although she finds many other unpalatable items to make up for it! I’ve tried it once in a cooked dish and managed to get through about a third of it before giving up.

So, goo Ranking took a wee look at what people put on top of their natto. goo Ranking offer now a service to cut and paste their original survey into your blog, so I’ll add that for those who want to see the original results. I’ll also add an English translation, of course! As usual for goo Rankings, 100 points is awarded for the top vote-getter, and the rest awarded a percentage representing how many votes they got relative to the winner. “Nothing” was perhaps not one of the answers allowed.

If the following table completely destroys your browser, sorry…
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japan.internet.com published JR Tokai Express Research’s on television versus the internet. Sampled were 331 people employed in public or private enterprises; 74.0% male, 11.8% in their 20s, 32.9% in 30s, 33.2% in 40s, 17.5% in 50s, and 4.5% in 60s.

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japan.internet.com published the results of a survey by JR Tokai Express Research into mobile information devices. On the last day of June and the first of July they interviewed by means of a private internet survey amongst their monitor group 330 people, 64.8% male. 10.0% were in their twenties, 30.6% in their thirties, 33.6% in their forties, 19.1% in their fifties, and 6.7% in their sixties. Note that this survey was looking at personal, not business, requirements.

I was suprisised that more people said that their ideal mobile environment would contain a spreadsheet editor rather than a scheduler, but perhaps this reflects the fact that many people already have sufficient mobile scheduling capability, be it either a pen and paper diary or a mobile phone’s function; most phones nowadays come with a rather functional scheduling application.
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With summer soon upon us, MyVoice surveyed its internet community to see what they thought about dieting. 13,710 people completed the private internet-based questionnaire, with 54% of the sample female, 3% in their teens, 22% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 24% in their forties, and 12% in their fifties. This is one survey where I’d love to see the results split by sex, but not so much that I want to pay 36,750 yen for the full report!

Of course, whether or not any of the one in five who were dieting really need to is another question; shaping up exercises or even just posture lessons is all the help the average Japanese person needs. I see too many borderline (or even over the edge) anorexic-looking women here; there’s few things I find more off-putting than seeing a woman with less meat on their legs than in a KFC party bucket staggering about in a pair of too-high-heels with toes turned in, knees forward and bum back to counterbalance, half tripping ever other step as their ankles buckle under the strain.
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japan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey by Cross Marketing Inc into the use of mobile phone alarms. Over two days at the end of June they interviewed 300 members of their monitor panel by means of a private internte-based questionnaire. As is usual for Cross Marketing with their small sample sizes, both the sex and ages of the sample were blanced. 50:50 male and female, and 20% in each age band from teens to fifties.

You may recall a previous survey I translated where the alarm feature was found to be the most-used function excluding the basics of voice and mail. I can’t say I use mine very much – only when I have something to do the same day and can’t be bothered making a full schedule entry. I don’t know for sure whether or not there is a snooze feature on my phone, but I suspect there is a key somewhere to press. Usually during the week I have a proper alarm clock, although more often than not I awake before it, but the weekends my wife sets mobile alarms for the both of us.
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MyVoice recently surveyed its internet monitor community to see what they were currently learning. At the start of June 13,584 people completed the private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 3% was in their teens, 22% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 24% in their forties, and 12% in their fifties. Note that “studying” covers practicing too.

I’m currently studying Japanese (obviously!), both translation and kanji; if I had any free time I’d join a Go school and do a correspondence course in ペン字, penji, which is the art of writing longhand (or cursive, or joined-up handwriting) in a neat manner. With the roman alphabet, you only have two or three strokes per character, but for kanji with up to 20 or so strokes for even common characters, methods of writing quickly but legibly are very important. My current handwriting, is a horribly unbalanced child-like scrawl. And my Japanese writing isn’t any better – I wish that statement was actually a joke!
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“What!”, I hear you cry, “aren’t all Buddhist priests supposed to be vegetarians?” The key word is of course supposed. The original Buddha, Shakyamuni, apparently was not, as is popularly believed, vegetarian, but instead just forbade people who would offer him food from killing an animal on his behalf. If he visited a family with a mutton curry in the pot, he would eat it if offered, or so it is recorded.

However, the various schools have adopted their own particular set of rules for their monks and priests, and most do (presumably) prescribe a vegetarian diet. And no alcohol of course.

Bearing this in mind, Triva no Izumi (Fount of Trivia) decided to ask 100 meat-eating priests what their favourite kind of 焼肉, yakiniku, grilled meat, beef in particular, was. What percentage of the total number of priests asked admitted to meat-eating is sadly not recorded. I have also previously translated another survey on the general population’s favourite grilled meat.
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Here’s a nice wee summer-tinged survey from goo Ranking: in mid-May by means of presumably an open poll on their web site they asked an indeterminate number of people to choose everyday soothing sounds. As usual with goo Ranking results, the top choice scores 100, and all others rank as a percentage of the top choice.

Having recently bought a flat with a garden, and with the mating season in full swing, I can well agree with the sound of birds being tops. I’m surprised, though, that the cicada figured so low, as it is a sound very typically associated with the Japanese summer. Perhaps they are just too loud, or are usually only heard in the torrid heat of midsummer to be considered soothing? I’d also have voted for the evening insects that herald the onset of Autumn. Round about the end of August the evening chorus changes from a harsh staccato to a soft, almost melodic, chirp. Perhaps that is the crickets at number six? Of course, in a British survey, the cricket sound would be that of leather off willow.
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For the benefit of those of you reading through the RSS feed (or those who are ad-blind), note that I have now placed in prime position in the top left of my blog a spot for advertising through BlogAds. I’ll spare you all the sales pitch; just click the link if you want more details. I’ll try to be fussy about what I accept – I wouldn’t want to subject you to anything I don’t think is in keeping with the main themes of this blog, but conversely I will be welcoming of topical commercial advertising.