世論 What Japan Thinks

A rather interesting survey by iShare looked at a topic that I’ve covered before, namely mobile battery recharging frequency, but with a look at a new angle, specifically what causes the battery to run down.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 28th of June 2010 462 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.3% of the sample were male, 32.9% in their twenties, 33.5% in their thirties, and 33.5% in their forties.

I recharge my phone about once every three days, but I blame that more on a two year old battery than on my occasional email habit.

It would have been nice to also see a breakdown of recharging habits against smartphones and feature phones.
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Here’s a short and perhaps less interesting than it could have been look at software keyboards, not just touch panels as on many smartphones, but also pen or even mouse-operated on-screen keyboards. The survey was conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Over the 29th and 30th of June 2010 1,065 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.1% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 20.9% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 16.2% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

Sort-of connected with this topic, on the news tonight I saw an item on the use of the iPad by seniors. There were things like a training school for older people, with almost everyone over 70 years old and the oldest 95, who said he was keen to learn how to use it. There also seems to be a mini boom in the Japanese software industry for making OAP-targeted iPad applications.
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Today’s bit of fun from goo Ranking is a look at when women feel there’s an ulterior motive behind a man’s actions. There’s no equivalent survey for men yet, but I’ll be sure to publish it when it appears!

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 think the premise of the question is wrong, myself – is there anything we guys do in relationships that doesn’t have an ulterior motive?
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The 16th regular survey from goo Research into electronic money found that the number of users continues a slide first highlighted in the 15th regular survey, although the report on japan.internet.com does not speculate at what might be the cause.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of July 2010 1,156 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 19.6% in their twenties, 20.8% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, and 27.2% aged fifty or older.

My IC card cash gets used on public transport and convenience stores only. All the other shops that accept it also accept the credit card portion, and most of them also award 3% points instead of just 1%, so it’s an easy choice. Furthermore, they more often than not don’t even ask for a PIN when using credit, so the extra effort required is minimal.
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Following on from the earlier survey into summer plans, iShare also took a look at beach fun.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 17th of June 2010 475 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.4% of the sample were male, 28.6% in their twenties, 34.3% in their thirties, and 37.1% in their forties.

I did once get invited to the beach by a nubile Japanese female, but that’s a story for another day…

I don’t want to go to the beach in Japan this summer and based on photos like this one from Yuki Naotori on flickr, I have no intention of ever going. In particular, having grown up with vast, empty, clean (barring the seaweed) sandy beaches, Japanese beaches could only be an anti-climax.

With the rainy season lifting this weekend in Japan (we’ve just had a cracker of an electrical storm to finish it off!) this survey (well, actually just a single question) from iShare looked at people’s main plan for the summer.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 22nd of June 2010 481 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.7% of the sample were male, 32.2% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

My plans for the summer are first taking the in-laws for a drive round some graveyards, then going to see an amateur play that my wife’s schoolmate is appearing in. If I had a free choice, I’d spend a week asleep…
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The sixth regular survey by goo Research into mobile devices, reported on by japan.internet.com, produced evidence that compared to the fourth time the survey was conducted smartphones have got more popular.

Demographics

Between the 28th of June and the 1st of July 2010 1,090 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, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, and 27.6% aged fifty or older.

I wonder next time they do the survey if the tablet PC category will see a jump due to iPad purchasers? Furthermore, I also expect smartphones to jump due to the iPhone 4′s release, assuming there isn’t a recall.

My interest in smartphones has waned again – I’m seeing a huge number of new models coming out in the UK and US with various packages of hundreds of minutes and hundreds of megabytes of data for under 3,000 yen, yet here I pay about the same for 30 minutes or a megabyte…
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Zangyo is the Japanese for overtime, and when it is sandwiched between two English words as in the title of this article it refers to a system that seems surprisingly common, No Overtime Day, a weekly event in my office where people are supposed to go home at five o’clock. This survey from iShare took a look at its implementation.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 25th of June 2010 429 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.6% of the sample were male, 31.9% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, and 37.1% in their forties.

Today was No Zangyo Day in the office. As I had to go to the hospital this morning I had to work an extra hour and 45 minutes to make up, yet I was still first to leave the office! Our Team Leader announced around about 18:30 that it was No Overtime Day and oughtened we think about going home, which is really about the extent of the implementation for me. However, other groups in the same building are better at going home, and I do notice the train station outside work is busier in the early evening on Wednesdays.
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This very detailed piece of research into women, housework and domestic appliances by Yahoo! Japan Value Insight revealed a lot of information about what the average Japanese kitchen looks like.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 12th of June 2010 800 women aged between 20 and 39 completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 25% fell into each of the age groups 20 to 24, 25 to 29, 30 to 34 and 35 to 39. 400 of the women in the sample were in full-time work, and 400 were either full-time housewives or out of work. All of them lived within the Tokyo area; either Tokyo itself or the neighbouring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa. Finally, those living with parents, siblings or other relatives, or living with friends were eliminated, thus all the working singles would be living alone.

Although I’ve detailed the demographics above, you’ll note that the totals in the questions below don’t add up to 800, but the reason for that is unclear.

In Q4 I’m also unsure of the difference between not wasting water and not sending too much down the drain.
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Here’s an interesting look by iShare on a topic I’ve not seen covered in detail in either Japan or the English-speaking sphere, a look at personal video creation, in particular how people use them on video sharing sites like YouTube or the Japanese equivalent Nico-Nico Douga.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 21st of June 2010 533 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.2% of the sample were male, 28.9% in their twenties, 35.5% in their thirties, and 35.6% in their forties.

The vast majority of videos I watch on YouTube are cat ones. However, I recently came across this slightly NSFW series of remixes of a song about a horse, which was rather entertaining.
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