世論 What Japan Thinks

iShare, in conjunction with SBI Card, recently conducted a very detailed look at splitting the bill on dates

Demographics

Between the 13th and 15th of July 2010 1,148 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 69.3% of the sample were male, 26.1% in their twenties, 42.6% in their thirties, and 31.3% in their forties.

I’m very definitely in the stingy class, although I do much prefer to call it canniness. I think I paid all on my first date with the wife, but after that, even on the first proper date, I suggested we split the bill, which didn’t go down too well… I believe it is standard in the UK and the US to split the bill as paying all suggests that the man might have ulterior motives, although as you can see from that survey, footing the bill does not appear on the list.
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Here is another very interesting survey from goo Research, a look at child-rearing and working. This is the second time the survey has been conducted, the first time being in December 2007, but I didn’t translate that one.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 29th of June 2010 exactly 1,000 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All of the sample were working mothers with a child under six years old. 44.6% of the sample were in regular full-time employment, 9.2% contract or dispatch workers, 38.6% part-time or casual, and 7.8% were on a child-rearing holiday.

You might want to look at another recent survey from goo Research on diverse working styles.

As far as I am aware, my employer has all the systems mentioned below in place for both mothers and fathers, although not surprisingly very few of the fathers avail themselves of any of the benefits; one day off for the baby popping out and another one for the mother being discharged from hospital seems about the size of it on average. Although Q6 shows that the wives want their husbands to make use of more benefits, Q7 and Q8 show a high degree of satisfaction with their husbands’ efforts. Are women setting the bar too low or are they just accepting that Japanese working styles on the whole result in father never seeing the kid on weekdays?
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Following on from yesterday’s look (well, it was supposed to be yesterday’s but I forgot to press the “Publish” button!) at the life of a Japanese dog, this survey from iShare took a look at people’s opinions regarding pet funerals – any pet, not just dogs.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 8th of July 2010 480 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.6% of the sample were male, 28.1% in their twenties, 34.8% in their thirties, and 37.1% in their forties.

In Q3, the story was that a pet funeral business in Hanno city in Saitama prefecture, rather that giving Fido a proper send-off, they just fly-tipped him and hundreds of his buddies down a back road. In order to counteract this problem in the future, from 2012 the government will require pet funeral business to be registered.

Note that since Japan is nominally Buddhist especially in matters of death, cremation is also the prefered method for disposing of pets. If I had a dead pet, I’d just get the council round to take him away, but I’m sure my wife would have other ideas.
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Alternatively subtitled “Over half of single Japanese sleep with their dogs”, but that sort of headline has got me into trouble before! When Yahoo! Japan Value Insight took a look at dog ownership, they found out that and many other interesting facts.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of June 2010 560 members of the Yahoo! monitor group living in Tokyo or the three surrounding prefectures with only one dog completed a private internet-based questionnaire. There were 100 of both men and women who were married with children, 68 men and 100 women married with no children, and 92 men and 100 women unmarried and living alone. The ages of each sub-group ranged from 20 to 59 years old. There was also another 100 of both men and women unmarried but living at home, but their answers were not reported.

I’m a cat person myself with a mild dog phobia, so I cannot but be amazed at the stupidity of the owners. On the other hand if it were felines, I would fully accept the results as a balanced representation of the respect humans have for their cat masters!

Photo from Chi (in Japan) on flickr.
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Here’s a little bit of Japanese rail transport recent history I wasn’t aware of, uncovered in a survey by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into railway station message boards. It appears that these blackboards could be used not just for official announcements, but also by the public for passing messages. Now, of course, the mobile phone has replaced the need.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of July 2010 1,051 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.6% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

There’s no notice board in my station in an obvious place, although I think I remember seeing one when I had to go to the station office, but it is probably used for internal communication only. Here’s a sample board, with the message saying “A perv was here”, taken by Tomozo on flickr.

For a number of months goo Research has been conducting a regular survey into mobile phone users’ use of computers, but the reports on japan.internet.com have been pretty uninteresting. However this time, the 18th time, the focus of the report was on email newsletters, or “mail magazines” as they are called in Japanese.

Demographics

Over the 12th and 13th of July 2010 1,087 mobile phone using members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private mobile internet-based questionnaire. 55.9% of the sample were female, 2.3% in their teens, 22.8% in their twenties, 39.7% in their thirties, 26.1% in their forties, and 9.0% aged fifty or older.

The only email newsletter I get on my mobile phone is from Mr Donut, as it sometimes offers coupons for discounts on doughnuts and coffee. Just about all my PC newsletters fall into the Other category, being related to various blogging sites and services.
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It’s been a while since I’ve had a FAIL post, so here goes with a look at what Japanese females think are men’s summer fashion FAILs.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of June 2010 1,137 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were female, 8.0% in their teens, 20.4% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, 23.9% in their forties, 9.2% in their fifties, and 7.2 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. In addition, this question was for females only.

I don’t do any of these fashion FAILs, but my pet FAIL are Crocs regardless of the season, and Jesus sandals annoy me for some reason. I’m not really sure about number 12, lots of silver – is silver supposed to be trendy in this weather?
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Recently, goo Research conducted a very thorough survey into media consumption in Japan, covering both the old and new media.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 4th of June 2010 1,561 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.1% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

I’m surprised at the number who surf while watching television! I very rarely do so, perhaps because I can’t handle Japanese television as a background task because I need to use too much brain to follow the Japanese, especially as I often need to read the ever-present subtitles to help my understanding. Furthermore, even though television is a passive task, being married I think it is ignoring my spouse to some degree, and anyway it’s difficult to type with one arm round her shoulder…
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Here’s a great survey from iShare, looking at the potentially rather dull subject of search engines, but by examining the relationship between usage patterns and browser choice they uncover interesting trends.

Demographics

Between the 29th of June and the 2nd of July 2010 474 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.6% of the sample were male, 27.4% in their twenties, 34.2% in their thirties, and 38.4% in their forties.

I feel that the CLUB BBQ demographic tends to be more technical than the average user, and that is perhaps reflected in the choice of search engine in Q1SQ3 where Google beats Yahoo! by a factor of three to one, despite other surveys with a wider demographic spread indicating that Yahoo! is a few points ahead of Google.

I use Opera and use its built-in toolbar to search Google. I’ve heard from a few people that Bing is actually worthwhile trying out, but when I’ve tried it out it very cleary biases my search towards Japan-located and Japanese-language results and I don’t know how to tell it to take a more global view.
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With 3D television starting to get off the ground in Japan, with a few particular programs being broadcast in 3D, goo Research took a look at television in general, but the report from japan.internet.com chose to focus on the 3D aspect.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 12th of July 2010 1,095 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties 16.4% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

Although I’ve been to two 3D movies, I’ve not actually watched 3D television. I was in a store with a pair of 3D glasses set up, but they had some really rather uninteresting scenery sample playing, so I didn’t bother having a peek through the specs. I’ve no desire to buy despite manufacturers strongly pushing the new technology.
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