世論 What Japan Thinks

DIMSDRIVE Research carried out a survey at the end of October regarding importation of USA beef and beef consumption in general. As a vegetarian myself, I’m naturally ambivalent as to whether people can buy USA beef or not, but as an amateur statistician and UK citizen, I think the whole fuss about BSE and vCJD was overblown, as the figures show. I recognise that at first as it was an new variant of a terrible disease the risk could not be quantified and extreme caution was required, but it seems to have turned out to be not as virulent as first feared. Also, from a Japanese point of view, I suspect that the dangers of toxins from locally-caught seafood may be responsible for more deaths than vCJD in the UK! And don’t get me started on banning blood donations from people who have spent even just one day in the UK!

They interviewed 2,535 men and 3,468 women – 6,003 in total – from their internet monitor group. They performed a similar survey in December 2003, so the trend since then will also be pointed out where significant. The age breakdown was 1.3% in their teens, 18.1% from 20 to 29, 36.3% from 30 to 39, 27.1% from 40 to 49, 12.6% from 50 to 59, and 4.6% 60 or over. Note that I assume “beef” to mean the raw cuts (perhaps precooked too?) as a food ingredient, not restaurant meals. However, given the high figures for male purchases, either many are reporting their wives’ shopping habits or are including prepared food, but since convenience stores figure very low in the statistics, I suspect that the first is true, many men must be reporting their wives’ purchases.

Q: In the last month, about how often have you bought beef? (Sample size=6,003)

	This survey October 2005	Last survey December 2003
Four or more times a week	1.3%	1.6%
Two or three times a week	12.6%	11.6%
Once a week	27.5%	31.5%
Two or three times a month	24.2%	27.9%
Once a month	13.4%	10.3%
Never	21.0%	17.1%

Q: For those who have bought beef, where do you most often purchase it? (Sample size=4,742)

Convenience store	0.4%
Supermarket	83.9%
Department store	3.0%
Butchers	6.8%
Co-operative	4.9%
Others	1.0%

Q: For those who have bought beef, what one thing do you pay most attention to when you make your purchase? (Sample size=4,742)

Price	40.2%
Place of origin	27.9%
Freshness	13.9%
Quality	7.8%
Best-before date	5.7%
Grade	2.4%
Processor (?)	0.9%
Vendor	0.4%
Other	0.8%

Q: What was the country of origin of the beef you currently purchase? (Sample size=4,742, multiple answer)

Japan	62.8%
Australia	52.5%
New Zealand	8.7%
Canada	2.4%
Brazil	0.4%
China	0.3%
Argentina	0.2%
Other	0.1%
Don’t know	10.6

Q: This year it is said that USA beef imports will restart; how do you feel about this? (Sample size=6,003)

Extremely uneasy	28.1%
A little uneasy	38.2%
Not really uneasy	24.0%
Not at all uneasy	6.0%
Don’t know	3.7%

Q: If imports of USA beef resumes, will you buy any? (Sample size=6,003)

Yes	22.5%
No	41.5%
Don’t know	36.0%

Q: For those who won’t buy USA beef, if which points were improved would you buy? (Sample size=2,490, multiple answer)

If USA tested all cattle	62.6%
If it was scientifically proven safe	42.6%
If the particularly dangerous parts were completely removed on importation	31.8%
If only cattle that hadn’t eaten bone meal feed were sold	28.5%
If the origin of beef was displayed at all points of sale	22.9%
If the age of beef was displayed at all points of sale	12.5%
Others	3.9%
Regardless of what was improved I wouldn’t buy	20.1%

goo Research, in cooperation with japan.internet.com, carried out their 20th survey on blogging in Japan. Note that I have previously translated their 19th survey. Since the number with blogs and the number commenting on blogs have both increased by a factor of six, I wonder if there is a causative relationship here; is genuine interest in the blogosphere increasing people’s urge to post, or is it just blatant self-promotion for ones blog? For me, it’s a combination of the two!

They surveyed 1,083 people, 41.09% male, 1.94% 19 or under, 27.98% in their 20s, 39.24% in their 30s, 19.94% in their 40s, and 10.90% fifty or older.

Q: In the last month, have you viewed a blog? (Sample size=1,083)

Yes	76.36%
No	17.27%
Don’t really know what a blog is	6.37%

The people who have viewed a blog has basically tripled in the last year and a half, and the don’t knows have dropped over six-fold from 40.80% since that very first survey.

As for what sort of blogs people are usually reading, the most popular answer was the bog-standard daily life blogs, at 39.90%, followed by no theme in particular at 32.04%, with film and music blogs third, way back at 16.93%.

Q: Have you posted a comment on a blog site? (Sample size=827)

Yes	28.05%
No	71.95%

This percentage is over double the number in the first survey 18 months ago, and allowing for the fact that over three times the number of people are now reading blogs, this represents an increase of a factor of six in the raw percentage of blog posters.

Q: In the last month, which blog service provider’s blogs have you visited? (Sample size=827, multiple answer)

Kokorogu	26.00%
Hadena diary	34.22%
My profile	4.72%
Blog people	6.77%
Livedoor blog	44.38%
excite blog	27.21%
Doblog	5.93%
gooBLOG	36.40%
WebryBlog	5.08%
Blogzine	3.63%
JUGEM	8.59%
SeesaaBLOG	7.86%
Yahoo! BLOGS	46.07%
yaplog	16.08%
Ameba Blog	26.12%
Rakuten Blog	34.70%
MSN Spaces	9.67%

Interesting that the above are all Japanese-based services.

Q: Have you made your own blog? (Sample size=1,083)

Yes	31.86%
No, but I want to try sometime	29.46%
No, and I don’t want to	32.23%
Don’t really know what a blog is	6.46%

The percentage with blogs or planning to make blogs has basically doubled in the last year and a half. Those respondents currently with blogs has increased by a factor of six. Most people have just one blog service account, at 66.09%, but the number with two or more has over doubled since the very first survey. However, although the number of blogs has increased, the percentage updating their blogs at least weekly has dropped 2.5% to 60.00%, but since the number of bloggers has increased six-fold, this drop is perhaps not significant. As for why people create a blog, the main reason is people wanting to keep a notebook, at 57.68%.

Q: Has your blog had a trackback? (Sample size=345)

Yes	70.43%
No	29.57%

Q: Have you done a trackback on another site? (Sample size=345)

Yes	37.10%
No	62.90%

DIMSDRIVE performed a survey regarding the use of massage parlours amongst 5,954 members of their internet survey group. 2,441 men and 3,513 women of all ages participated in the survey. I’ve been once for a massage myself, at Queensway which was rather nice, but because they also do reflexology, I don’t want to spend any more money supporting quackery. Note that this survey is not about that kind of massage.

Q: Have you been to a massage parlour? (N=5,954)

Yes	47.7%
No	52.3%

Studying the age breakdown, for men only those in their forties had a majority who had been; for women only a quarter of the teenagers had been, but all other age groups (bar between 50 and 59 years old, by 0.2%) a small majority had been.

Now for those 3,112 who have been, various questions were asked.

Q: How frequently do you go?

More than once a week	3.8%
Two or three times a month	8.6%
Once a month	11.0%
Once every two or three months	15.2%
Once every six months	13.3%
Once a year	6.8%
Less than that	16.2%
No particular frequency of visits	25.1%

Q: On average, how long is each visit?

Up to 15 minutes	4.9%
Up to 20 minutes	8.3%
Up to 30 minutes	30.5%
Up to 45 minutes	15.7%
Up to 60 minutes	29.4%
Longer than 60 minutes	5.3%
No particular fixed length of time	5.9%

Q: Which body part do you usually get massaged? (Multiple answer)

Shoulders	57.9%
Lumbar regions	44.6%
Spine	42.7%
Neck	42.5%
Feet	33.31%
All body	31.8%
Soles of feet	24.5%
Arms or hands	13.7%
Head	10.3%
Other	0.9%

Q: Who do you often go with? (Multiple answer)

By myself	77.7%
Family	14.6%
Friends	13.5%
Lover	3.6%
Colleagues	2.4%
Other	0.0%

Q: Where are the parlours you often go to situated? (Multiple answer)

Near home	35.2%
Near station	30.2%
Near work	15.6%
In shopping centre	14.7%
In department store	6.1%
Inside station	5.5%
Others	16.3%

Q: Around what time do you often visit? (Multiple answer)

Weekday morning	11.6%
Weekday lunchtime	13.2%
Weekday afternoon or evening	29.4%
Weekday night	22.3%
Weekend morning	8.7%
Weekend lunchtime	13.3%
Weekend afternoon or evening	24.5%
Weekend night	5.0%
Other	4.1%

Next, the styles of massage the people have had performed on various parts of the body was investigated. The highlights were British style was most popular for soles of the feet (reflexology quackery is popular), and Thai style was the most popular for the whole body.

Q: Do you have a favourite massage parlour? (Sample size=3,112)

Yes	60.2%
No	39.8%

SQ: If answered yes to previous question, how did you find that favourite parlour? (Sample size=1,240, multiple answer)

Just came across it	41.0%
Friends or family introduced it	36.6%
Word of mouth	20.8%
Free newspaper	12.0%
Internet	9.4%
Magazine	6.8%
Television	2.0%
Other	3.1%

SQ: If answered yes to previous question, why do you like it? (Sample size=1,240, multiple answer)

Good technique	58.8%
Easy access	51.9%
Responsive staff	46.0%
Reasonable price	40.2%
Clean shop	33.2%
Good service	28.4%
Takes reservations	13.8%
Private rooms	13.1%
Long or late opening hours	12.8%
Same sex masseurs	11.0%
Other	3.2%

Q: For those who have never used a massage parlour, do you want to? (Sample size=2,842)

Want to	56.6%
Don’t want to	17.1%
Don’t know	26.3%

Women, by almost half as much again than men want to visit a parlour.

Q: For those who have never used a massage parlour, if a parlour has what sort of features would you want to try to visit? (Sample size not mentioned, perhaps 2,842 * 56.6%=1,609, multiple answer)

Reasonable price	92.5%
Clean shop	76.7%
Easy access	71.3%
Same sex masseurs	38.5%
Private rooms	37.7%
Various styles of massage available	32.0%
Long or late opening hours	27.2%
Health consultations given	26.8%
Can go with friends or family	14.6%
Cafe or restaurant facilities	14.0%
Takes reservations	13.9%
Creche facilites	12.6%
Popular with locals	9.6%
Introduced by TV or magazines	8.9%
Children’s massage available	4.2%
Home visiting service	3.7%
Others	2.1%
Don’t know	0.2%

In my wife’s daily newspaper, the Seikyo Shimbun, there was a short article regarding statistics on old people in Japan who live alone. Whether or not old folk living alone is a good thing or not, I’ll leave it for others to comment, but one one hand both my grandmothers lived alone for most of their retirements, but in the sme town as our family so someone visited them almost every day, whereas in Japan they have adverts for a kettle that phones home with statistics of daily usage so you can tell if Grannie’s been making tea or not.

In 2004 the government carried out a survey, and discovered that there was 2,820,000 women over 65 living alone, about triple the figure of 910,000 for men. In the last three years alone, this figure has increased by 180,000. Over half of the women had got into the situation by outliving their husbands, around double the percentage for men outliving their wives. About 10% lived alone due to having never married, but why the remaining people are living alone, it is not recorded. Presenting the population of single seniors separated by sex and age, we get the following table:

Males 65-69	7.4%
Males 70-74	6.8%
Males 74-79	5.1%
Males 80-84	3.0%
Males 85+	1.9%
Females 65-69	16.0%
Females 70-74	19.5%
Females 74-79	19.5%
Females 80-84	13.0%
Females 85+	7.8%

In Japan, Christmas cards are, obviously, almost unheard of, so instead the traditional season’s greetings are done via 年賀状ハガキ nengajou hagaki, New Year’s greetings postcards. The themes for the cards usually reflect the Chinese zodiac with this coming year being the Year of the Dog, so no doubt, given the current dog boom in Japan, stupid chihuahuas will adorn most cards. I usually send cards out to my colleagues, but this year, thanks to new privacy regulations, the list of home addresses of my colleagues is now Company Confidential, so we have been banned from creating personal address books from the data!

SourceNext conducted a small net-based survey on people’s plans for the coming season, and found out the following snippets of information. The sample was 516 people from all over the country, exactly 50:50 male and female, carried out in mid-September.

Q1: Do you plan to send New Years greeting cards (not just postcards, including e-mail or mobile-phone message, etc) this coming New Year? (Sample size=516)

Yes	89.7%
No	10.3%

Q2: What way will you send your greetings? (Sample size=463, multiple answer)

Postcard	95.7%
e-mail	37.1%
Mobile phone	31.1%
Web-based greetings car service	18.6%
Others	0.0%
No answer	0.0%

Q3: Including e-mail, etc, in total about how many New Year’s greetings will you send? (Sample size=463)

10 or less	7.6%
11 to 30	28.3%
31 to 50	21.4%
51 to 100	23.3%
101 or more	19.4%

Q4: Including e-mail, etc, will you use separate designs for work and personal, etc, New Year’s greetings? (Sample size=463)

Yes	51.8%
No	48.2%

Q5: About how many different designs will you make? (Sample size=480 where did that number come from? Shouldn’t it be 463*51.8%=240? Since there are two sub-questions, everyone counts twice?)

Work use

Two designs	54.2%
Three designs	2.1%
Four designs	0.4%
Five or more designs	0.8%
Won’t make or won’t separate (ie 0 or 1)	42.5%

Personal use

Two designs	63.3%
Three designs	17.1%
Four designs	2.9%
Five or more designs	10.0%
Won’t make or won’t separate (ie 0 or 1)	6.7%

Q6: When do you plan on buying your New Year postcards? (Sample size=443)

As soon as they go on sale	20.5%
November (but not ASAP)	25.1%
December	31.4%
January (!)	0.7%
Not decided	22.3%

Q7: When do you plan on starting making (ie writing or printing) your New Years greetings cards? NB: Last posting date is 24th December. (Sample size=443)

November	5.6%
December 1st to 24th	64.8%
December 25th to 31st	17.2%
January	1.6%
Not decided	10.8%

Q8: How will you make the postcards cards? Answer for the picture side and address sides separately. (Sample size=433+433=886, multiple answer)

	By hand	Software	Home printing machine	Order from printing company	Others
Address side	33.0%	68.2%	1.4%	0.7%	1.1%
Picture side	16.5%	77.9%	4.1%	6.8%	5.9%

Q9: What sort of greetings card do you want to use? (Sample size=463, multiple answer)

Chinese zodiac picture or illustration	75.8%
Other illustration	30.2%
Pet photo	6.9%
Family or children photo	21.2%
Others	5.6%

Q10: About how much would you spend on greetings card design software? (Sample size=117) Presumably there was a “Would you buy design software?” question to cut down the sample size.

Up to 1000 yen	20.5%
Up to 2000 yen	26.5%
Up to 3000 yen	31.6%
Up to 5000 yen	17.1%
Up to 8000 yen	3.4%
Over 8000 yen	0.9%

Q11: Why would you buy card design software? (Sample size=117, multiple answer)

For this year’s original contents	77.8%
For the latest features	33.3%
Others	7.7%

infoseek Research and Rakuten Research (not sure of the connection between the two companies) carried out the following survey regarding people’s views on divorce. They interviewed 1,852 married or divorced people aged from 20 to 69 in April of last year. (Actually, the survey was part of a larger one on general lifestyle issues, and this report chose to highlight the divorce aspect.) The statistic of 30% of young people marrying due to a bun in the oven is rather eye-opening.

First, people were asked the reason for resolving to get married. The top answer was “No particular reason”, at 24.2%; next was worrying about getting left on the shelf and other age-related concerns at 23.4%. 14.1% said because they’d been going out for so long, and 12.5% was for some other reason. Where the other 25.8% went is not noted, but in the “other reason” category, answers like “Because I like… partner or the concept of marriage, I don’t know – Japanese is sometimes vague!” and “I want to live together with my partner” and other forward-looking statements were in the majority. Looking at individual age groups, 30.3% of those in their twenties had their hands forced by the necessity of a shotgun wedding! Note that in Japan, children born out of wedlock is still less than 10% of the total births.

Now on to divorce: the raw figures are as follows.

Q: Have you ever thought about divorcing your current partner?

Never	63.2%
Thought about it before	31.1%
Currently thinking about it	5.7%

Looking at the figures in detail, considering those who are currently and have previously thought about divorce as one, only 29.4% of men have, whilst 43.1% of women have. Looking at those currently thinking about divorce by age group for each sex, the peaks are for early thirties men, at 10.3% and late forties women at 9.2%.

Q: For those who have thought about divorce, for how long have you thought about divorcing your current partner?

	All (N=626)	Male (N=232)	Female (N=394)
Up to six months	8.9%	3.9%	11.9%
Six months to one year	11.7%	9.5%	12.9%
One to three years	17.3%	15.9%	18.0%
Three to five years	12.3%	13.8%	11.4%
Five to eight years	10.7%	12.9%	9.4%
Eight to ten years	8.5%	11.2%	6.9%
10 to 15 years	12.9%	13.8%	12.4%
15 to 20 years	7.5%	8.6%	6.9%
20 to 25 years	5.4%	6.0%	5.1%
25 to 30 years	4.2%	3.4%	4.6%
Over 30 years	0.6%	0.9%	0.5%

The above table seems to show that women have thought about divorce for a shorter time on average than for men, but the exact reason for this is not hinted at within the article.

As can be seen from the table below, the biggest reason for thinking about divorce is a personality clash, at 45.0%, followed by problems with parents or relatives at 22.0%, and living together causing mental problems at 21.1%. Amongst those aged 40 and over, the personality clash issue is especially large.

Q: For what reasons did you think about divorce? (Multiple answer)

Personality clash	45.0%
Problem with parents or relatives	22.0%
Living together causing mental problems	21.1%
Disagreements about money sense	19.3%
Disagreements about lifestyle	19.2%
Disagreements about sex	18.2%
Wanting to be alone	14.2%
Disagreements about interests	12.9%
Problem regarding children	12.0%
It was a mistake getting married	11.8%
Loans or wasteful habits	8.9%
Partner’s personality changed	8.8%
Partner’s unfaithfulness	8.6%
Domestic violence	6.5%
Others	6.5%
Changed jobs	5.8%
Cannot go out freely	5.4%
Drinking problem	5.3%
Get away from children	3.8%
Gambling	3.5%
Religion or ideology problem	3.0%
Redundancy	3.0%
Met someone else	2.2%
Didn’t receive any spending money	2.1%
Illness	2.1%
Don’t want to return home	1.6%

Looking at why people don’t get divorced, one reason that splits the sexes is the concern of the effect on a child having just a single parent. 48.3% of men versus 38.3% of women felt this to be a concern, perhaps reflecting the usual outcome of custody issues, namely that children tend to end up with the mother (my personal opinion, not mentioned in the survey analysis). Similarly, 23.3% of men would hate to be separated from their kids versus 15,5% of women.

Q: For what reasons did you suppress your desire for divorce? (Multiple answer)

	All	Male	Female
Couldn’t survive financially	22.7%	5.6%	32.7%
Living alone is lonely	8.5%	9.1%	8.1%
Pitiful for a child to have a single parent	42.0%	48.3%	38.3%
Parents or others opposed to divorce	6.4%	6.0%	6.6%
Other people think we should be together	2.1%	2.2%	2.0%
Must keep up appearances	17.4%	20.3%	15.7%
Partner couldn’t live without me	9.4%	8.6%	9.9%
Partner couldn’t live alone	12.9%	16.8%	10.7%
Would hate to be separated from children	18.4%	23.3%	15.5%
Others	15.8%	10.8%	18.8%

Thinking about how long it will be until they are divorced, 50.2% thought within a year, and 22.3% within half a year (so 27.9% are between six to twelve months). It’s not clear if the sample size are just those currently thinking of divorce, but that may be correct.

Questioning the whole sample of 1,852 people regarding bringing up the subject of divorce, 80.5% thought women should bring it up, but only 51.9% thought men should. In addition, 69.0% thought they should bring up the topic themselves, whereas 17.8% said it was their partner, and 13.2% of the time both sides brought up the topic round about the same time. This last sentence is unclear – it might refer to in cases of those who are divorced or thinking about divorce, but the question uses the present tense.

Q: For those of you divorced, what did you do with your wedding ring?

Just kept it	27.9%
Threw it away	24.9%
Others	22.3%
Returned it to partner	15.7%
Sold it	5.1%
Gave it to someone else	2.0%
Had it remade into other jewelry	2.0%

NTT DoCoMo recently carried out a survey of users of mobile phones with electronic wallet functionality to see how, or even if, they were being used. Note when reading this survey that first NTT DoCoMo has heavily invested in the electronic money infrastructure and almost all of their new models come with this feature built-in. For their FOMA range (3G phones), it is a compulsory feature, and with sales figures showing over 80% of new and upgrading customers are choosing these models, NTT have a vested interest in the success of electronic wallets, as they no doubt get a transaction fee for every electronic money purchase. This may or may not have influenced the outcome of the survey. However, if accurate, it shows a pretty high degree of market penetration. UPDATE: If only I’d posted this right after I translated it last week, I could have beaten the BBC on this story!

Although launched only last July, in just one year and two months (September 3rd) DoCoMo reached 6 million electronic money-capabile phones sold, and by the first of October there were about 25,000 shops nationwide and 6,000 vending machines equipped with readers.

In this survey, 4,000 users of mobile phones with the DoCoMo おサイフケータイ (osaifu keitai, Mobile Wallet) service functionality built-in were interviewed, 2,200 male, 1,800 female, and their answers are as follows.

Q: Have you used the Mobile Wallet functionality of your phone?

	Using it	Used to use it, but stopped	Not used it
All	28%	3%	69%
Up to 19 years old	18%	4%	78%
20 to 29 years old	27%	4%	69%
30 to 39 years old	32%	3%	65%
40 to 49 years old	29%	3%	68%
Over 50 years old	21%	2%	77%

This 28% represents 1,108 people, and if this is scaled up to cover all people owning electronic-money ready DoCoMo phones, about 1.82 million people are using this service.

Q: How often do you use your Mobile Wallet? (Sample size=1,108)

Over thrice a day	6%
About once a day	12%
About five times a week	5%
About thrice a week	15%
About once a week	24%
About once every two weeks	11%
About once a month	17%
Hardly ever use it	10%

Compared with the same question asked in May, the percentage using the service once a day or more has increased from 13% to 18%.

Q: Where do you use your Mobile Wallet? (Sample size=1,108, multiple answer)

Convenience store	84%
Rental shop	25%
Vending machine	24%
Airport	22%
Electrical retailer	18%
Pharmacist	16%
Book or CD shop	15%
Cafe	15%
Fast food store	14%
Bar or pub	12%
Family Restaurant	11%

Note that at some places, like at airports, the Mobile Wallet is not used as money, but as a member’s card for saving points, etc. When you buy a plane ticket from ANA online, you can get an email sent to your mobile phone that allows you to access an application that records a transaction identifier in the IC card of the wallet, so ticket collection and check-in can be performed simultaneously and effortlessly.

Q: How satisfied are you with your Mobile Wallet service? (Sample size=1,108)

Extremely satisfied	13%
Satisfied	69%
Dissatisfied	19%

SQ: If extremely satisfied or satisfied, will you buy a Mobile Wallet capable phone next time you change phones? (Sample size=902)

Definitely want to buy	47%
Want to buy	52%
Don’t want to buy	1%

Q: What do you like about using your Mobile Wallet? (Sample size=1,108)

Just hold over reader to use	73%
Speedy purchasing	60%
No fiddling with a wallet	46%
Earn points	21%
Can refill via iMode	20%
Can see remaining cash on display	17%
It’s OK not to bring a wallet	14%
Can use for lots of services	14%
Less stuff in my wallet	12%

Q: What services would you like to use in the future? (Sample size=4,000)

Electronic money	58%
Point card	56%
Rail pass	35%
Cinema ticket	20%
Cash card	18%
Home key	15%
Concert ticket	8%
Theme park passport	8%

iShare Inc have once again surveyed CLUB BBQ members, this time to find out about shopping trends on their mobiles. They got 2,270 valid responses to their survey, carried out at the start of September. 60.6% of their respondents were male.

iShare discovered that a lot of people did their shopping from the comfort of their own homes, so dubbed them “Couch Keitais (mobiles)”, which might be rendered in English as “immobile phoners”. On with the figures; note that the figures in most of the tables below have been reported with no decimal places.

First of all, only 9.1% of the survey group (207 respondents) have bought mail-order goods via their mobiles. However, the most popular by far place for shopping was sitting on the sofa at home, with 44.5% of the 207 (92 people) reporting that as where they make their purchases. Next was while on the move, with only 23.1% selecting that.

When asked why they use a particular mobile phone shopping site, the most popular reason, with 34.2% of shoppers choosing it, was that because it’s the same site as usually used from a PC. Conversely, given the choice between a PC site and a sister mobile-based site, 42.2% (of everyone or just mobile shoppers?) would choose to continue using the PC.

I wonder if the full report asks what people think about using a portable PC (or even PDA-sized) and wireless LAN instead?

Now to some of the numbers that have been quoted in detail.

Q: For those of you who have used a shopping site from your mobile, are you on a flat-fee mobile internet use plan?

Yes	43%
No	57%

Q: For those of you who have not used a shopping site from your mobile, are you on a flat-fee mobile internet use plan?

Yes	16%
No	84%

Q: For those of you who have used a shopping site from your mobile, what have you bought?

Clothes	10%
Food	12%
Books	28%
Tickets	21%
Other	30%

“Others” in the last two tables include primarily CDs and DVDs.

This was a multiple answer question, but they have presented the results as a percentage. You have to pay money to find out the real figures…

Q: For those of you who have not used a shopping site from your mobile, what might you like to buy?

Clothes	3%
Food	5%
Books	35%
Tickets	46%
Other	12%

Q: When buying goods from your mobile, how did you pay for goods? If you’ve not shopped how would you want to pay? (Single answer)

	Net Shoppers	Not net shoppers
Together with phone bill	8.9%	31.6%
Credit card	43.8%	26.6%
Convenience store	12.5%	19.0%
Bank transfer	12.5%	8.1%
Others	5.2%	2.8%

Better late than never, the Asahi Shimbun conducted a telephone survey on an unspecified number of people on the 22nd and 23rd regarding attitudes to the general election a month and a half ago, and discovered that most people felt it was a media election.

First, 52% thought the election was interesting, with 39% feeling it wasn’t. Those in their twenties found it especially interesting, with over 60% of that age group expressing that opinion. Perhaps this was due to all the coverage of Horiemon?

53% thought that media coverage of the election had either a great or somewhat of an effect on the outcome. For those who voted for the LDP, 63% felt the media had had an influence on the result. This is perhaps due to the coverage of Koizumi’s female assassins.

Regarding which medium people accesses the most for information, television was first with 51%, newspapers at 40%, and the internet a mere 4%. LDP voters favoured the TV more, at 56%, whereas DPJ supporters preferred newspapers, at 48%. Women also got their information primarily from TV, at 58% versus 34% for newpapers, whereas men were at 44% for TV, 46% for newspapers. For those under 50, TV was the primary media; over 50 and it was newspapers.

As to whether the media concentrated on particular parties or constituencies, 50% held that impression, versus 41% who did not. 60% of DPJ voters held that impression, but I wonder how much of that is to do with being on the losing side? For LDP supporters, only 46% felt bias in the coverage.

Regarding when people decided who to vote for, 68% decided over a week before the election, 23% decided with less than a week to go, and 8% on the day of the vote itself.

Finally, 50% said they support the current Koizumi cabinet, and 33% do not. This is down from 55% for and 30% against in a snap survey on the 17th and 18th after Koizumi visited the neo-nationalist Yasukuni shrine; perhaps the ramifications of his visit have started to sink in?

A new research company to me, Rakuten Research, carried out this recent survey on the use of mobile contents and services, the 18th time they’ve carried it out, but the first time I’ve heard of it!

The survey was carried out at the start of this month amongst Rakuten Research’s monitor group; 2,460 people were selected, almost exactly 50:50 of each sex, with 2,074 of them (86.4%) being mobile phone users from the four main networks, DoCoMo, au, VodaFone and TU-KA. Unless otherwise noted, the sample size for questions are these 2,074 mobile phone users. The main areas of the survey was to find out about the use of “full browsers”, meaning mobile phone browsers that can view PC-based contents, the views on mobile phone information leakage, and communications with eldery parents. However, they have split the results reporting into two articles, so this report is about full browers only. Note that I have translated another survey regarding full browsers.

Q1: Have you used a full browser on your mobile?

All (N=2,074)	9.5%
Male (N=1,042)	12.5%
Female (N=1,032)	6.6%

Q2: For those answering yes to Q1, within the last month, what sorts of web sites have you accessed with the full browser? (Sample size=202, multiple answer)

Search or portal site	46.0%
News or general info site	37.1%
Traffic, maps or travel	26.7%
Shopping	21.8%
Blog	19.8%
Bulletin board	18.3%
Auction	17.8%
Single-function service (dictionary, translation, etc)	10.4%
Other	7.9%

Q3: For those answering yes to Q1, after using the full browser, how has your frequency of access to mobile phone-targetted sites changed? (Sample size=202)

Hardly ever access previously-used mobile sites	35.1%
Frequency of access of mobile sites has decreased	13.4%
Frequency of access of mobile sites has not changed	42.1%
Frequency of access of mobile sites has increased	9.4%

Q4: For those answering yes to Q1, after using the full browser, how has your frequency of access to mobile phone-targetted pay sites changed? (Sample size=202)

Now never access previously-used paid-for mobile contents	47.0%
Amount spend on paid-for mobile contents has decreased	15.3%
Amount spend on paid-for mobile contents has not changed	30.2%
Amount spend on paid-for mobile contents has increased	7.4%

Q5: What issues might crop up (or have cropped up) as a result of using a full browser? (Sample size=2,074, multiple answer)

Packet charge increase	60.8%
Phone screen size too small	44.3%
Corrupted character encodings or screen layout broken	28.1%
Few usable features	25.9%
Worry about viruses or accessing dodgy sites	25.5%
Response from web servers slow	25.3%
Poor usability	20.6%
Cannot view Javascript or Flash-based high-spec sites	15.9%
Others	2.4%
No particular problems or worries	19.2%

Finally, the trends of usage patterns of various major features of mobile phones were investigated. For each of the main functions of the phone, each respondent was asked if they had used it within the last month. Looking back at the historical data the following trends can be seen:

• Picture mail usage has increased from 36.4% to 40.5% in the last two months
• Bar code and QR Code scans are up from 17.6% to 21.5%
• Infrared usage also up from 14.4% to 16.6%
• Usage of all other features up, but none very significantly
• However, electronic money feature usage is still less than 2%