世論 What Japan Thinks

Just before the New Year Mobile Marketing Data Laboratory published a survey of the actual use of smartphone apps in 2013, with this report focusing on the questions regarding game app usage; other questions were regarding social network apps and what genres of apps people stopped using. I hope they later release that data also.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of December 2013 560 members of the MMD Labo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All the sample were 20 years old or more, and all had smartphones.

I reckon my most-used genre is games, and Candy Crush Saga in particular. SNS, Google+ specifically, comes a close second, however.

All the game links below lead to the Android version, if there is one. Only two titles appear to be iPhone only.
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goo Ranking’s surveys usually exclude the more saucy possible answers to their surveys, but this one is a rarety, a straight-forward look at signs, actions, or words that indicate that a woman is open to spending the night together.

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. Given the original Japanese answer wording, the answers were not limited to personal experience, although I have chosen to translate as if they were. Note that this survey was for the men in the sample only.

I think for this survey I’ll not tell you about my own experiences…
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This is an annual ranking survey from goo Ranking, looking at what expectations people have for the future Japan. I have translated a number of other years’ surveys, including 2012, 2010 and 2008.

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.

Note that people were selecting options from a list, I believe, so more controversial and political topics would have been filtered out. Nevertheless, despite all the doom and gloom foreign correspondents are writing about Japan’s nationalism, etc, note that number 6 is quite outwards-looking, as is number 21. Indeed, number 21 used a generic term for people, 人々, hitobito, not an exclusive term like “citizen” or “Japanese”.
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This will be the last survey of this year, from goo Ranking and looking at what enjoyable but time-consuming task people want to do.

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.

Happy New Year of the Horse to all my readers! Above is a typical scene from the Japanese concept of First Footing, a midnight visit to a temple.
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Just in time for the New Year, and perhaps as an alert to my male readers on how to avoid getting into their wife’s bad books, goo Ranking published a list of dissatisfactions with one’s husband that causes arguments to break out over New Year.

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. I would guess that only married women answered the survey, although the wording of the Japanese answers suggests that unmarried women could imagine which answers might apply to them in the future or to other couples, or even their parents.

This rather unappetising-looking fish is actually rather auspicious; me failing to avoid turning up my nose at some of the traditional Japanese New Year offering is perhaps the most common reason previously for arguments!

So far this year end I don’t think I’ve committed any of these flaws, although I am currently skating on thin ice regarding my procrastination of tidying up the garden!
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goo Ranking sneaked in just before the end of Christmas day with this survey into ways to get into the Christmas spirit for under 500 yen, or 3.50 euros, 4.80 US dollars, 2.93 UK pounds, or even 0.0072 bitcoins if that’s the way you like to count your money!

Demographics

The survey was conducted between the 4th and 8th of October 2013 where 1,074 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.

Viewing Christmas illuminations is good, but getting Google+ to AutoAwesome them is even better:

I like being in Japan in that I can avoid the Christmas spirit on the whole, although most stores start looping Christmas numbers from the end of November.

Regardless, I’d like to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas (or other appropriate non-denominational equivalent) and in your own particular ways have a fun Xmas/New Year/Holiday Season. I still have one more day of work to go before my holidays.
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Today is a bunch of questions from @nifty around the theme of the New Year.

Demographics

Between the 6th and 12th of December 2013 5,418 members of the @nifty internet service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographic information was provided.

One reason for translating this is that I’ve just finished sending off my New Years cards (the Japanese equivalent of Christmas cards), a total of 16, I think it was, and my wife is sending another 45.
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An interesting survey today from goo Ranking, looking at what kinds of Facebook posts your friends want to Like and don’t want to Like.

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. The percentage of Facebook users was not reported, although the current penetration of it is around 25% in Japan. Whether or not non-members answered by imagining what they might like to see and not see, or if they were excluded from the sample was also not reported.

I made a Q2 Number 1:

In Q1, I’d have thought cat videos would have been higher, as that’s about all I +1 on Google+! However, I suppose a silly cat photo could be classed as an example of number 1?

I’m not sure what the photo of one’s feet means in Q2. Is this some strange Facebook fad?
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The official Twitter Japan blog recently published the top 10 hashtags of the year and other various popular terms.

Before the top tens, here’s the top one mascot character:

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With Washoku, Japanese traditional home cooking, being awarded UNESCO status as an intangible cultural heritage, this recent survey from Kikkoman, a soy sauce maker, into awareness of Washoku provides some useful background data.

Demographics

Over the 27th and 28th of November 2013 830 housewives between the ages of 20 and 69 completed a private internet-based questionnaire. There is no information on how the sample was gathered, but the results were weighted according to the actual demographics of Japan.

As a coincidence, I had this Washoku meal tonight while out:

I’m not sure if the tofu-burger in the middle counts, but the surrounding dishes are certainly Washoku; anti-clockwise from the 5 grain rice we have pickles (yuk, passed them to my wife), seaweed (wakame) and fried tofu miso soup, purple sweet potato salad, konnyaku (double yuk!), hiyakko cold tofu, salad, and gobo (burdock root). Very nice it was too – my review should appear here soon.
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