世論 What Japan Thinks

Last year Kirin started with Kirin Zero, a completely alcohol-free drink that supposedly tastes like beer, and they were soon followed by all the other major brewers. To see how people drink them, iShare conducted a survey into these beer taste soft drinks.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 18th of February 2010 509 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 31.8% in their twenties, 30.8% in their thirties, and 37.3% in their forties.

I’ve drunk one can once – well, I drunk half a can and poured the rest away. It did look quite beer-like in colour and head, but the taste was just like what I imagine fizzy hops tea would be.

It gets promoted at a couple of the restaurants that I frequent, but it always seems to be priced just the same as real beer, and much higher than ordinary fizzy drinks. I’d stick with ginger beer if I was in the situation of needing to drive after a drinking party!
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I am occasionally accused (quite rightly!) of spicing up story titles, but today this survey from goo Ranking needs no extra help from me, when they asked what rumours about Japanese girls schools are they curious to find out if they are true or not.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of January 2010 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were female, 19.9% in their teens, 29.5% in their twenties, 30.5% in their thirties, and 20.1% in their forties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I wonder given the subject matter that only the males were asked the question? Then again, women who haven’t been to a private school may be curious too to know the answer.
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goo Ranking’s silliness for today is a look at what women do in the hope of being considered cute and men do for coolness.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of January 2010 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were female, 19.9% in their teens, 29.5% in their twenties, 30.5% in their thirties, and 20.1% in their forties. 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 attempts to look cool are limited to pulling a subtle wistful smile and appearing to be lost in thought trying to figure out the mysteries of the universe while all I’m actually doing is translating this silly survey. However, I’m probably giving more of an impression of being the train loony…

The 12= for men, paying by credit card all in one installment, refers to the standard credit card settlement method in Japan – for most cards you have to pay everything off at the end of the month, so if you want to spread the load you can ask to pay in multiple installments, so the store bills you once a month for the next few months. 11 for men, giving a coat to a crying girl, is a mystery to me, as is 24=, skiving off swimming lessons!
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Every time a survey like this one from Marsh Inc into domains comes up, I comment on how the statistics must surely be wrong, or at the very least the question is framed badly.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 26th of February 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 2.3% in their teens, 17.7% 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.

Considering that I would presume that a prerequisite to owning a top-level domain is knowing in detail what exactly it is, 61 people know the details about domains and 73 people claim to have had one, that’s about 20% who just didn’t really know what their domain was. Thus, I have to conclude that “having a domain” includes “having a blog on a sub-domain”, not merely the stricter definition of “having purchased a top-level domain”, especially considering that .jp domains are considerably more expensive than the others.

I own a few .coms and a .net, I had a .biz, and I have a .org and a cunning plan…
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As if Japanese television wasn’t mindless enough (there are good shows, but even the good shows are cheap time-fillers), nearly half of the respondents to iShare’s survey into Twitter and television thought the two make a fun mix.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 15th of February 2010 516 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.2% of the sample were male, 30.4% in their twenties, 33.7% in their thirties, and 35.9% in their forties.

Even worse, about two in five fancied Twittering with the people on the box. I’ve seen a couple of late-night programmes that feature the people in the studio checking emails for topics, and it’s incredibly boring just watching the top of someone’s head as they mutter at a monitor trying to summarise a message.
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Unfortunately what this survey by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile search omits is what search provider people are using, but still it is quite interesting to see what people are searching for.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of February 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 1.7% in their teens, 18.3% 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.

I’ve only had a fleeting experience with the default search engine built into docomo’s iMode, but it was pretty terrible. Now I directly use Google and its iMode front-end, although it’s barely once a month that I use it, and then it is always for “<restaurant name> coupon”, which usually gives me a hit in one of the top three entries.
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I’ve been hoping such a survey as this one from iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, on Google services but focusing on just Google Buzz, would appear, as I’ve wanted an excuse to write about Google Buzz.

Demographics

On the 22nd of February 2010 300 people completed a survey; 52.0% of the sample were female, 14.7% in their twenties, 43.0% in their thirties, 28.0% in their forties, 10.3% in their fifties, and 4.0% in their sixties.

Just in case you don’t know, Google Buzz is Google’s attempt at a social networking service based around their core offerings including Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Chat. However, it launched into a storm of privacy complaints and for me, although I didn’t notice any privacy issues I certainly did notice it imposing itself into my Google Reader window, showing me far too much stuff from my contacts’ activities without any way to easily ignore. I soon turned it off, but I might go back in a couple of months to see if they have added any controls to only show me my friends when I want to see them.
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I’m not really sure how the pie chart I have extracted from this survey by iShare into body complexes relates to the subject, but I thought it was interesting enough to graph.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 8th of February 2010 497 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.1% of the sample were male, 31.6% in their twenties, 29.4% in their thirties, and 39.0% in their forties.

I don’t have any complexes, I don’t think, although I used to have a thing about my teeth, but that was a justified complex as they were in a terrible state, so a good few visits to the dentist fixed all that.

I’d love to have seen hair as a separate category, as I think many Japanese men are conditioned by the media to expect to have a full head of black hair well into their middle age. I’m going a bit thin on top and silver in the stubble myself, but it seems to bother my wife more than me!
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A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into mobile devices (the fourth time this regular survey was conducted) found that the iPhone far outsold ASUS’s Eee PC, the top netbook.

Demographics

On the 9th of February 2010 1,080 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 17.0% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, and 26.6% aged fifty or older.

It is useful to compare the outcome of this survey and the other survey I published yesterday on mini notebook computers.
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In the US and the UK I get the distinct impression that the netbook market is in a rush for the bottom, but here in Japan, premium-priced mini-notebooks seem to be the norm according to this recent survey from Media Interactive reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of February 2010 1,000 internet users completed a survey, although the means of gathering this sample was not described. 53.1% of the sample were male, 0.8% in their teens, 13.8% in their twenties, 31.3% in their thirties, 28.3% in their forties, 17.9% in their fifties, and 7.9% in their sixties.

I’ve now had my MSI Wind for about four months; I picked it up for under 300 dollars in the US, and it works great as a second PC that I can use when my wife’s busy with the main computer, or for stuffing in my rucksack whenever I have a solo train ride with 20 minutes or more to kill.
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