世論 What Japan Thinks

With Panasonic due to start selling their 3D Viera on the 23rd of April, this recent survey from goo Research was on television in general, but the short report on japan.internet.com focused on the timely 3D aspect.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 20th of March 2010 1,079 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, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

As a cross-reference, you might like to look at an earlier survey from iShare on the same subject.

I’m not interested in 3D television, myself. I did notice a couple of days ago in central Osaka the local cable company were promoting their upcoming 3D broadcasts, and there was quite a long queue in front of the demostration stand, but perhaps people were just lining up for whatever freebies they were handing out…
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This recent survey from goo Ranking into the iPhone turned up not only an interesting figure on penetration of the device amongst SoftBank users, but also a pretty impressive high level of desire for Apple’s new iPad.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 27th of March 2010 1,084 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

I certainly don’t want an iPad, but I can see it doing quite well in Japan, although the size is just slightly too large for usage on a commuter train, especially with having to hold it up for a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps one of the most popular accessories we’ll see in Japan is a lap stand?

And don’t ask me why one person didn’t know whether or not they had an iPhone…
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A recent survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into online shopping failures by women found few actually complained to the shop about their problems.

Demographics

On the 23rd of March 2010 300 female members of the iBridge monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 21.3% were in their twenties, 37.0% in their thirties, 26.7% in their forties, 9.3% in their fifties, and 5.7% in their sixties.

Even though she will often complain about other things, the few times my wife has had problems with online ordering, in particular with clothes, she hasn’t bothered to do anything as she says it’s too much hassle and cost to return the items, despite her usual shop offering no questions asked refunds of unworn clothes.
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This latest survey into internet advertising, from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com, their 10th regular survey on the topic, didn’t ask (or didn’t report) the one question I want to hear the results to, whether or not people run ad blocking software.

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of March 2010 1,062 members of the goo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.8% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, and 27.2% aged fifty or older.

My wife runs the Rakuten toolbar, which gives you one Rakuten search point (I’m not sure exactly how they work) when you use the toolbar to search, but the result page that comes out has almost the whole first screen full of text adverts, often for sites that appear in the natural results the next screen down. It all seems a bit of con to me, and I should really tweak Ad Muncher so it hides them all!
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The hanami, cherry blossom viewing, season is in full swing, which means all the popular areas are packed, making for not really a very pleasant experience in my opinion. Thus, this survey from iShare into hanami information sites looked into “air hanami”, just looking at the photos and not bothering visiting in person.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 15th of March 2010 548 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.9% of the sample were male, 33.9% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, and 34.9% in their forties.

Watching the television this last weekend, I saw that Ueno Park in Tokyo had around 100,000 visitors on Saturday! I find the crowds too much bother, so I make do with looking at Kema Sakuranomiya Park in Osaka through the window of the train to and from work.

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Here’s another interesting survey from goo Ranking, this time looking at what lies we tell that come back to haunt us.

Demographics

Over the 22nd and 23rd of February 2010 1,123 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.6% of the sample were female, 9.6% in their teens, 22.2% in their twenties, 32.1% in their thirties, 24.9% in their forties, 7.5% in their fifties, and 3.8% 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 biggest lie was announcing to friends back in Scotland shortly after moving to Japan that I now had a million in the bank, but without pointing out it was in the rather less impressive yen, not pounds. I also lived in a royal mansion when I first came to Japan.

For number 13, I would have thought claiming not to be married would have been a bigger problem!

My wife doesn’t need to lie about 2,　4, 5, 15, 16 and 20. At least I hope she’s not lying about them…
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With graduation season just finished in Japan, here’s a look with goo Ranking at people’s memories, both the sad ones for men and women and the happy ones for men and women.

Demographics

Over the 22nd and 23rd of February 2010 1,123 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.6% of the sample were female, 9.6% in their teens, 22.2% in their twenties, 32.1% in their thirties, 24.9% in their forties, 7.5% in their fifties, and 3.8% 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.

Although the URL uses “happy” and most of the Q2 incidents seem happy to me, the actual question used “bitter-sweet”, for a reason I’m not really to sure about!

I don’t really remember anything in particular about my university graduation day, but looking at the list of event below I think they are more talking about school graduation, I think. We didn’t have any of that graduation nonsense when I was in school – the last day of school on the final year was pretty much like the last day every other year.
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iBridge Research Plus recently conducted a survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, into the matter of free papers.

Demographics

On the 8th of March 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.0% of the sample were male, 9.0% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 32.7% in their forties, 23.0% in their fifties, and 4.3% in their sixties.

I get about two or three free papers every fortnight through my door, usually filled with just classified advertisements and restaurant and beauty information with coupons, which I always check as my favourite local restaurant usually has a 10% off offer on the go.

Just one person reads foreigner-oriented free sheets – all I can say is that I’m glad my wife did too…
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Recently japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by Marsh Inc into car (satellite) navigation systems.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 14th of March 2010 300 driving license-holding car owners completed a private internet-baed questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

In the west I have been getting the impression recently that dedicated car navigation devices are being pushed out by smartphones with often free navigation software. However, in Japan the market is quite well-established with large-screen feature-filled system the norm, so perhaps smartphones will have less of an impact here. That would be an interesting aspect to perform a survey on.

The report does note that compared to just seven months ago (September 2009), the share of owners has gone up by five percentage points.
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This interesting survey from iShare took a look at outcome of arguments, which revealed the rather unbelievable statistic of more women than men apologising…

Demographics

Between the 5th and 10th of March 2010 509 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.0% of the sample were male, 31.8% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, and 35.6% in their forties.

Although Q1 and Q2 don’t directly specify who people are arguing with in private, one can assume that one’s partner is often the other combatant, although as mentioned above, the number of women self-reporting that they apologise seems rather high. However, Q2SQ balances it out with nearly twice as many men indicating that apologies don’t always calm the other side down.
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