世論 What Japan Thinks

iShare recently conducted a survey that had a nice buzzword in the title, namely Yama (Mountain) Girls, a trend amongst young women to go hillwalking for the fashion as much as for the exercise. However, the headline was the extent of the involvement of the Yama Girls, and it turned out to be a rather ordinary look at mountaineering and hillwalking with a mobile phone instead.

Demographics

Betwen the 15th and 17th of September 2010 1,217 members of the CLUB BBQ who had gone mountaineering or hillwalking with a mobile phone completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 80.5% of the respondents were male, 5.8% in their twenties, 46.8% in their thirties, 34.3% in their forties, and 13.1% in their fifties.

In Q2, note that Mount Takao is within the Tokyo prefecture limits and a mere 599 metres high with a funicular railway, and the 931 metre-high Mount Rokko is within the Kobe city limits and also has two funiculars and a cable car up to the plateau, so they are in quite a different class from the 3776 metres of Mount Fuji!
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With mobile phone-based SNSes (well, they are more like Social Gaming Services) currently flooding television screens with advertisements, it’s easy to forget about the granddaddy of them all, mixi. goo Research haven’t as this was the subject of a survey they conducted that was reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 4th of October 2010 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I kept meaning to sign up for mixi, and even got an invite from someone, but even now with it going invite-free this March I’ve never felt the urge to sign up, as it would just be something else to ignore along with What Japan Thinks on Facebook.
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There’s been a number of women-only questionnaires on iShare lately, so while I wait for them to redress the balance, here is another one for the ladies, a look at makeup.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 14th of September 2010 454 female members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 31.1% of the women were in their twenties, 29.7% in their thirties, and 39.2% in their forties.

Not having had any experience of applying makeup, I cannot directly comment on the survey, but given that my wife takes about 30 to 45 minutes to get her face together, it does seem like far too much bother, but then again she used to apply makeup for professional reasons.

In Q1 it would have been worthwhile to have a cross-reference against employment status to see how many people went to work without putting their warpaint on.
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Here’s the follow-up to single guys with salaries of over 10 million yen, single guys with over 10 million yen in the bank, another rather long-winded title that looks much better and shorter in Japanese.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 13th of September 2010 1,150 single female members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service in full-time employement completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 21.7% of the sample were in their twenties, 39.1% in their thirties, and 39.1% in their forties. This looks like the same sample that answered the previous questionnaire, so a direct comparison can be made.

As with the previous survey, I don’t score many hits for looking like I have 10 million yen in the bank!

To me, someone with 10 million in the bank is either someone who has earned it by scrimping or saving, or someone who has inherited it. Looking at the answers, though, I don’t really understand what image the women who answered have – I cannot really picture someone who matches the top choices.
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japan.internet.com recently published the highlights of goo Research’s 64th regular mobile research surve, this time focusing on mobile shopping.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 16th of September 2010 1,017 members of the goo Research mobile monitor group completed a private internet-based querstionnaire. 56.0% of the sample were female, 3.5% in their teens, 25.6% in their twenties, 39.4% in their thirties, 24.6% in their forties, and 6.9% aged fifty or older.

I’ve never bought anything through my mobile, and don’t think I ever will, at least not until I get a smartphone.

In Q2SQ2, I’m not really sure about the 3.9% who do mobile shopping while physical shopping! Perhaps it means people who for instance find a book they want in a bookshop, but pop onto Amazon to order it at a lower price?
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An interesting recent ranking survey from goo Ranking looked at the phenomenon of himono-onna, or woman who while young has abandoned love, to quote the dictionary.

Demographics

Over the 23rd and 24th of August 2010 1,127 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.3% of the sample were female, 11.7% in their teens, 16.5% in their twenties, 29.0% in their thirties, 23.2% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 8.7% 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.

The picture above is from a recent television drama, Hotaru no Hikari, where the lead character is the said dried-up woman type. The Japanese text says “A dried-up woman is someone who eats straight out of the pan.”
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A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into learning foreign languages found not surprisingly that English was the most popular language, but surprisingly that for most it was a hobby rather than for any specific work or travel-related objective.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of September 2010 1,074 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.2% 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.

I’d love to have found out more about how people were learning for free – was it something like me with What Japan Thinks, just reading stuff on the web and hoping it sticks, was it free lessons through NHK educational television, or just choosing to go to the subtitled instead of dubbed version of movies?
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A most interesting recent survey from goo Research was a 30,000 woman breast cancer survey, the sixth time they have carried this out.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 14th of September 2010 32,830 women made up from members of the goo Research monitor panel and ordinary users of goo web services completed an internet-based questionnaire. 1.5% of the sample were in their teens, 5.3% between 20 and 24 years old, 11.7% between 25 and 29, 18.0% between 30 and 34, 20.0% between 35 and 29, 15.8% between 40 and 44, 12.5% between 45 and 49, 7.4% between 50 and 54, 4.0% between 55 and 50, and 3.7% aged sixty or older. 38.7% were housewives, 24.7% in full-time regular employment, 20.4% in short-term or part-time work, etc.

I’ve highlighted the results from how women felt about mammographies, as my wife reports them to be a very painful experience, but I believe the question is more directed towards how women feel after having had the results rather than about the details of the examination itself.
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The sixth regular survey into consumer games machines by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com also revealed that almost all portable games machine users used them at home.

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of September 2010 1,099 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, and 15.7% in their fifties, and 11.7% aged sixty or older.

I read today about Panasonic’s re-entry into the games market through a subsiduary names Panasonic Cloud Entertainment, or PCENT for short (read as P-CENT?) with the too-ugly-to-be-retro The Jungle.

Note that Panasonic have never actually been away from the games market, as they’ve done a lot of system software for all the recent Nintendo devices, but PCENT seem to have no relation to the Nintendo-related work.

Note that the survey for some reason reported the first two sets of data as percentages but the third as raw numbers.
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Here’s an interesting and lengthy look by iShare at single guys with salaries of over 10 million yen, a rather long-winded title that looks much better and shorter in Japanese. There will be a follow-up later this week or next on single guys with over 10 million yen in the bank!

Demographics

Between the 10th and 13th of September 2010 1,150 single female members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service in full-time employement completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 21.7% of the sample were in their twenties, 39.1% in their thirties, and 39.1% in their forties.

At one point I was really close to 10 million yen a year, but then the economy collapsed about four years ago and my employer cut their bonus payments and got tighter regarding benefits.

Looking down the list, I don’t think I fit any of the highest voted images for any of the questions!
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