Given that Microsoft started last year giving away the rather useful Microsoft Security Essentials and that this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into anti-virus software found that price was the biggest factor when choosing a package, one would have thought that the percentage of paid software users would have been lower.
Demographics
Between the 5th and 11th of January 2011 1,081 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the survey were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.
One key reason for the high rate of paid software is, I suspect, heavy television advertising by at least two or three vendors raising awareness of the need to buy amongst users. However, I would admit that it is also possible that it is the high rate of payers that spurs the advertising market rather than the other way around.
As mentioned above, I now use Microsoft Security Essentials which does everything I need. I used to use Avast!, but it started nagging me in the autumn to upgrade to the paid version but didn’t seem to have any obvious way to turn off the warnings. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s another rather slow set of results from DIMSDRIVE Research (although, of course I’m most grateful for making the data public) into theme parks and funfairs.
Demographics
Between the 12th and 27th of May 2010 8,164 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.9% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 11.4% in their twenties, 31.6% in their thirties, 32.4% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 7.8% aged sixty or older. As a further demographic, 62.2% were married.
I personally hate roller coasters, in particular the lift part, both from the point of view of heights (I’m not terribly good with them) and the slow wind-up. The most recent one I rode was at Universal Studios Japan, which has slightly reclining seats so you are basically horizontal on the way up, and my wife (who loves them) was telling me how she found it scary when she had ridden before. Getting off these things I have terrible rubber legs but a strange feeling of relief for having survived. My worst experience was on a tea cup kind of ride (in Japan it’s called a coffee cup) which little to my knowledge beforehand tilted up to around sixty degrees, but with no seat belts, just an iron bar to brace against. At the same theme park (Expoland, now closed after a fatal accident) on another day with work colleagues one woman had to be pushed onto a kiddie-oriented haunted house-type of tunnel ride that featured not much more than a few static glow-in-the-dark bats.
The seventh regular survey into consumer games machines by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com also revealed that Nintendo’s machines are still the most popular in Japan.
Demographics
Between the 6th and 8th of January 2011 1,093 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, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16/3% in their forties, and 27.5% aged fifty or older.
As there’s nothing I can graph in this survey, instead here’s the first match on YouTube for Nintendo:
The survey also noted that in the US the various Nintendo DSs had sold about 47 million, and the Wii around 34 million.
I’ve not seen the Nintendo 3DS in real life, but the Sharp LYNX mobile phone uses similar technology to do its 3D, and it does work rather well, although I’m not sure how trying to use 3D in a moving train will be, although I suspect that at least I would get motion sickness from it; One Seg television is enough eye (and stomach) strain for me. Read the rest of this entry »
Come examination time, many Japanese students seem keen to follow superstitions to bring them a pass; finding out the most popular was the subject of a recent survey from goo Ranking.
Demographics
Over the 20th and 21st of December 2010 1,128 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.4% of the sample were female, 11.9% in their teens, 17.2% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 23.2% in their forties, 10.0% in their fifties, and 7.4% 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.
Come exam time and the shops are filled with sweets with good luck-related themes. Kit-Kats are a perennial favourite as their name sounds like “Definite Win”; corn snacks called Carl become U-Carl, as it sounds like “to pass an exam”; Mr Donut this year had five-sided (sounds like “to pass an exam”) doughnuts with rather corny puns, and so on.
Between the 19th and 22nd of November 2010 1,171 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were female, 11.3% in their teens, 19.1% in their twenties, 29.0% in their thirties, 23.4% in their forties, 9.6% in their fifties, and 7.6% 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. Note that for this question only the women answered.
It’s my favourite sort of survey as there’s always scope for answers to stray into downright weird territory, with this being no exception, although it could have got even more creepy, I suppose. Number 3 is quite a sad answer, as many Japanese women in the entertainment industry at least set themselves targets of getting married by a specific age. Number 30 initially seems very low, but remember that 30% of women in their twenties who marry have a bun in the oven, and only 10% of babies are born out of wedlock. Read the rest of this entry »
With all the cold weather recently, this survey from DIMSDRIVE Reseach may help you choose what kind of thermal underwear is best.
Demographics
Between the 1st and 16th of December 2010 5,915 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.2% of the sample were male, 0.7% in their teens, 9.8% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 33.3% in their forties, 16.3% in their fifties, and 9.7% aged sixty or older.
When I was a kid the only thermal underwear was Damart, which still look as naff as I remember from then! Now, however, new materials such as UniQlo’s Heattech mean that clothes can be both fashionable and warm. My wife has a good number of their turtleneck tops, but all I have are two cheap-and-nasty last-generation U-neck inners. Note that this survey is only concerned with these new kinds of material. Read the rest of this entry »
The Cabinet Office Japan released the results of a survey last month into animal welfare. Note that the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals mentioned later in the survey has an official English translation, if you’re interested in that.
Demographics
Between the 2nd and 12th of September 2010 3,000 people over the age of 20 chosen at random from resident registers were approached to complete a face-to-face questionnaire. 1,939 people were available and completed the survey, a response rate of 64.6%. 54.8% of the sample were male, 9.2% in their twenties, 16.1% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 17.1% in their fifties, 21.2% in their sixties, and 19.9% aged seventy or older.
I remember as a child my brother (or it could have been me…) drawing a picture of what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he chose to be in charge of the euthanasia section of the local pound.
The Act on Welfare and Management of Animals is pretty tame; the average Japanese pet shop has cages stacked two or three high giving dogs little space to stand, let alone play. They get put on display after about six weeks, so don’t get weaned properly, and there are persistant rumours that if they get past their sell-by date of around five months or so, they get sent back to the breeder for “disposal”. Read the rest of this entry »
The Cabinet Office Japan released the results of a survey last month into animal welfare. Note that the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals mentioned later in the survey has an official English translation, if you’re interested in that.
Demographics
Between the 2nd and 12th of September 2010 3,000 people over the age of 20 chosen at random from resident registers were approached to complete a face-to-face questionnaire. 1,939 people were available and completed the survey, a response rate of 64.6%. 54.8% of the sample were male, 9.2% in their twenties, 16.1% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 17.1% in their fifties, 21.2% in their sixties, and 19.9% aged seventy or older.
Comparing the answers for cats and dogs, I don’t really know why pet cats run twice the risk of getting their wedding tackle removed! Read the rest of this entry »
My Canon is a single-function inkjet, so I’m quite close to the norm according to this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into inkjet printers.
Demographics
Between the 6th and 12th of January 2011 1,060 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.8% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 20.2% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.
I plan to upgrade shortly as the print head is getting a bit worn out, and although the head can be cheaply replaced, I’d like to get a Brother so I can interchange ink cartridges with my multi-function phone/fax/printer/scanner/SD card printer/kitchen sink. Read the rest of this entry »
japan.internet.com recently published the results of the 66th regular mobile advertising survey from goo Research.
Demographics
Between the 5th and 7th of January 2011 1,096 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.0% of the sample were female, 2.8% in their teens, 24.7% in their twenties, 37.7% in their thirties, 26.6% in their forties, and 8.3% aged fifty or older.
I’ve never bought anything through my mobile phone, and even though my wife does a lot of PC-based shopping, she has never to my knowledge used her mobile. The strange thing is that mobile shopping should be more secure, or at least a mobile phone is easier to lock down, yet as far as I am aware most mobiles such as Japanese feature phones have little or no protection against many kinds of attacks. However, there are various moves afoot to correct that, such as some stuff I am involved in. Read the rest of this entry »
Given that Microsoft started last year giving away the rather useful Microsoft Security Essentials and that this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into anti-virus software found that price was the biggest factor when choosing a package, one would have thought that the percentage of paid software users would have been lower.
Here’s another rather slow set of results from DIMSDRIVE Research (although, of course I’m most grateful for making the data public) into 
With all the cold weather recently, this survey from DIMSDRIVE Reseach may help you choose what kind of 
The Cabinet Office Japan released the results of a survey last month into 
The Cabinet Office Japan released the results of a survey last month into 
My Canon is a single-function inkjet, so I’m quite close to the norm according to this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into 
japan.internet.com recently published the results of the 66th regular 
Subscribe to feed