世論 What Japan Thinks

As a sort-of follow-up to last month’s look at office software at home, we now look with goo Research at office software at work, as reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of August 2011 1,084 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

We’re all Microsoft Office at work, and as it’s only Office 2003 and as more and more people are now moving to 2007 or 2010, it’s getting worse and worse with forward compatibility, and indeed just last week I had a file that would crash Word if I double-clicked it on the file, but if I loaded it up from the File Open diaglog all the text would be completely invisible.
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With it looking like we have managed to survive the summer without a single power cut in Japan, it may be a good time to look at a survey from goo Research conducted in July on saving electricity.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 7th of July 2011 1,080 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were male, 19.5% in their teens, 20.3% in their twenties, 19.9% in their thirties, 20.2% in their forties, and 20.1% aged fifty or older.

The survey title in the original Japanese is usually translated (as I did above) as “saving electricity”, but as a pedant I’d like to point out that you cannot really save electricity, but instead just cut down on the usage. We tried to cut down this summer by using less air conditioning and relying on a simple fan a bit more, but quite frankly I see little difference in our monthly bills.

At work we have various changes, but the stupidest one was to unplug the rechargers for our company mobile phones during peak hours. However, the company phones have hopeless batteries, so if you forgot to plug back in before a long weekend, for example, you could come back to a dead phone that has returned to factory settings. On top of that, it just takes one person to bang their head on the underside of the desk and you’ll have the Health and Safety people all over you. This activity lasted exactly two days in our team.
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Another regular survey from goo Research resets back to one, but at least this time there is a valid reason for it. The subject was terrestrial digitial television, and since just over a month ago analogue broadcasts were turned off (except for in the earthquake affected prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate) it seems a good excuse to make the change.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 17th of August 2011 1,090 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, and 27.5% aged fifty or older.
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Another detailed survey from goo Research, this time looking at information device usage amongst older folk, the third time they have conducted their survey.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 22nd of June 2011, 8,393 older members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 76.6% of the sample were male, 48.6% of the men and 66.5% of the women were aged between 60 and 64 years old, 24.6% of the men and 21.6% were aged between 65 and 69 years old, 17.2% of the men and 8.7% of the women were aged between 70 and 74 years old, 7.9% of the men and 2.6% of the women were aged between 75 and 79 years old, and 1.6% of the men and 0.7% of the women were 80 years old or older.

Although the number of smartphone and tablet users is relatively low, I was suprised to see that between 40% and 50% have downloaded at least one paid app. It would have been very interesting to see what sort of applications they are paying for; newspapers or electronic books would be the stereotypical image I have, but what is the reality?
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goo Ranking recently took a look at one of my most disliked things on Japanese television, fortune telling, and in particular what things make people hate a fortune teller.

Demographics

Over the 22nd and 23rd of July 2011 over 1,000 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. However, the link to the sample demographics does not work. 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 think this survey refers to when people visit fortune tellers themselves, or read books about their own star sign or whatever, rather than watching someone on television. Here’s a photo from flickr by Janne Moren of a palm reader in Osaka:

By the way, Japan does not have the typical US (and UK) big-time television cold readers fishing their audience for someone to whom the letter “T” is important. Instead we get hot readings with celebs getting their palms read and egos stroked by other celeb readers.

I did see ads for Uri Geller on my phone recently, which was not very nice in the slightest.
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An interesting survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into office software on home computers found that free suites are more popular.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 14th of August 2011 1,065 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

Note that I suspect that a number of people who got Microsoft Office or Works bundled with their system may have reported this as free software.

For myself, I occasionally use Open Office (Libre Office). I mostly use their Excel clone from that suite.
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A recent detailed survey report from goo Research was their third six-monthly look at the media usage situation.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 30th of May 2011 1,499 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I use both TV and PC internet every day, both for longer than I’d like to admit to!
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goo Research started yet another new survey series, according to this report from japan.internet.com, this time looking at shopping site use by mobile phone users.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 10th of August 2011 1,098 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private mobile-based (including smartphone) survey. 58.3% of the sample were female, 3.8% in their teens, 27.8% in their twenties, 35.8% in their thirties, 23.5% in their forties, and 9.1% aged fifty or older.

I’ve never done any mobile shopping, for all the three reasons listed, and I could probably fill out the “other” answer with a number of additional reasons.
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The final summer holiday-themed survey for today is a look at what tough summer holiday experiences Japanese had as children.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of June 2011 1,148 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 12.1% in their teens, 16.9% in their twenties, 28.0% in their thirties, 25.4% in their forties, 9.7% in their fifties, and 7.9% 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 did spend all summer in hospital one year, and another year after playing on the beach the result of our play (undermining a sand dune then breaking the turf on top – I’m sure there was a good reason for it) featured on the front page of the local paper as an example of coastal erosion…
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Continuing the foreign holiday theme, this time goo Ranking looked at when Japanese feel they are back home after overseas travel. The actual title contains one of these Japanese words that I always find difficult to translate; it’s the feeling of being able to relax after something stressful or challenging, the sigh after the first mouthful of cold beer that lets out all the stress of a hard day’s work, for instance. If any of my readers wish to chip in with a good translation for ?????, please comment!

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of June 2011 1,148 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 12.1% in their teens, 16.9% in their twenties, 28.0% in their thirties, 25.4% in their forties, 9.7% in their fifties, and 7.9% 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.

My feeling of being back home is going to Starbucks in Kansai Airport arrivals lounge; it’s a combination of trying to make myself understood in Japanese through a faceful of stubble and hangover-enhanced jetlag, the staff trying their hardest with English, and when it comes to pay, my triumphant I’m-not-just-another-bloody-tourist moment as I wave my Kabibara-san-encased electronic cash and declare “PiTaPa onegaishimasu!”

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