Here’s one of these goo Ranking surveys that leaves me scratching my head rather a lot. This time it’s on fire prevention, a pertinent question as this month is fire prevention month – apparently this is the driest month of the year. As usual, no demographics, just a ranking for the relative votes in each category. Note that many people in Japan use either paraffin or gas heaters with naked flames.
If I were asked about this, the top answers I would give would be perhaps ensuring smoke detector batteries were fresh, or not smoking in bed if I were a smoker, but here in Japan, the second-top answer is not putting out rubbish the night before so as not to tempt arsonists. I can’t say I’ve ever given a thought to the subject,and in Japan is there really a significant amount of it or is it the result of the media focusing on the topic? There are posters everywhere about being aware of it, and the news often has reports of serial arsonists, but… I must check out the relevant statistics some time. Read the rest of this entry »
Continuing on from cheese, we now move to that most wonderful of Japanese sweeties, Pocky. Apparently the 11th of November is Pocky and Pretz (a savoury version of Pocky) Day, presumably as 11 11 looks like four Pocky sticks. I can guess that Pretz is so-called as it is perhaps reminiscent of a pretzel, but why Pocky?
As usual, no demographics, just the relative votes from a survey conducted towards the end of October. I like most of the Pocky advertisements, so I was rather pleased to find someone doing their own YouTube version of one of the current commercials.
In my never-ending quest to bring you the finest in studies of Japanese consumer habits, I present the latest goo Ranking survey on cheese for your edification. As usual for these rankings, the scoring is expressed as percentages; the finest fermented curd scores 100 points, and all other cheesy comestibles score according to the ratio of their votes to the number one.
Some trivia: apparently cheese (when first introduced to Japan anyway) smelt as bad to the Japanese as natto does to us Westerners. Most cheese sold in Japan is made in Japan, and whilst I can understand it in cheddar’s case, Hokkaido mozzarella still seems rather strange to me. The chance of any cheese purchased in Japanese tasting anything like Western-produced cheese is rather remote, bar the plastic processed cheese slices that are equally revolting the world over!
If you thought yesterday’s survey was a strange thing to ask about, here’s an even odder one – goo Ranking on one’s favourite cloud. As usual for goo Rankings, there is no demographic information, and the top-scoring costume gets 100 points and all the rest get rates as a percentage of the top rank. This survey was also conducted over a three day period towards the end of September.
In addition, the auspicious clouds answer includes, I believe, the popular Japanese folk belief that earthquakes are preceded by very red clouds at sunset.
Living in Japan, one would, however, get the impression that the favourite clouds are from the fog of cigarette smoke. My personal favourite is my tag cloud. Read the rest of this entry »
goo Ranking published today the results of one of their ranking surveys into what costumes people would like to try on in private, for both men and women. As usual for goo Rankings, there is no demographic information, and the top-scoring costume gets 100 points and all the rest get rates as a percentage of the top rank. Both surveys were conducted over a three day period towards the end of September.
Note that for some of the costumes it does not specify if it is male or female, such as for the women selecting Harry Potter; whether it is Harry himself they want to dress up as or as Hermione is not clear. However, I feel it is safe to assume that cross-dressing in private is a popular desire.
I’ve also linked a few of the costumes to work-safe material, so don’t worry too much about clicking on the links.
Following on from yesterday’s post showing us that the best way of getting rich quick is the lottery, here’s a survey from goo Ranking about where people keep their lottery tickets. As usual for these ranking surveys, there is no demographic information and the rank for each choice is expressed as a percentage of the votes for the top answer. The survey was conducted towards the end of August.
Don’t ask me why people put their tickets in the fridge, but if anyone else knows, please leave me a message. Read the rest of this entry »
As part of DIMSDRIVE Research’s 94th Ranking Survey, they asked members of their monitor group to tell them the best way to get rich quick. This survey used a new to me kanji expression, 一攫千金, ikkaku senkin, meaning, as you might guess from the title of this post, get rich quick.
Not surprisingly, number one by a long, long way is the tax on the stupid, the lottery. Share dealing’s rating no doubt hasn’t been helped by the ongoing recession and the livedoor incident. Read the rest of this entry »
goo Ranking did another silly wee opinion survey recently, this one looking at what were unusual but tasty mayonnaise combinations. As usual, no demographics, and scores are expressed as percentages of the top votes-getter.
Kewpie mayonnaise is my favourite mayonnaise, not that I like the taste much, nor that I put it on anything other than salad, but their adverts are wonderful!
Back in May goo Ranking published the results of one of their quick web polls into people’s favourite foreign beer. As usual for goo Ranking, no demographic information is available, and the score for each beer is the percentage of the votes it received compared to the number one choice.
Sadly, but not really unexpected, Budweiser (not the real Budvar, sadly) scooped number one slot. However, many of the beers voted for are, I would guess, local beers brewed under licence. I’ve had “Indian” Kingfisher lager that was imported to Japan from the UK, and in Los Angeles I once had Asahi Super Dry with “IMPORTED” boldly stamped on the label, only to find the small print indicating it had come from Canada. Read the rest of this entry »
As always, these rankings should be taken with a pinch of salt due to the lack of demographics and the open nature of the poll. Remember that the score listed is the percentage of votes for each choice relative to the top choice. Read the rest of this entry »
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