世論 What Japan Thinks

goo Ranking looked at what arbitrary actions by friends makes one think “I’ll not be inviting them round again…”.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were female, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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.

Not suprisingly to me, least unwelcome were people who did the cleaning – in my book, that would guarantee being invited back!
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Since it’s Mother’s Day here in Japan at least, I present a timely survey from goo Ranking into when people think “Thanks Mum!”.

Demographics

Over the 4th and 5th of April 2013 1,101 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 23.3% in their teens, 25.2% in their twenties, 25.5% in their thirties, and 26.1% in their forties; there was no-one older than 49 in this sample. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Above is a Mothers Day gift catalogue from a convenience store in Japan, themed around Rilakkuma.

My mother doesn’t believe in Mother’s Day, thinking it just a cynical excuse by card and chocolate makers to sell us more stuff.
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I’m sure there must be someone out there interested in this ranking survey from Anicom, a major pet insurance company, into the most popular names for birds, rabbits and ferrets. This survey was conducted on the 31st of March last year (2012) by looking at the pet names registered on pet insurance contracts. The names of 480 birds, 2,573 rabbits, and 1,900 ferrets were collected. If there is an appropriate English meaning for the names, I will put it in brackets after the Japanese pet name

By the way, I searched Flickr for Creative Common-licenced “rabbit injury” photos, and you can see what came up!

Popular Japanese bird names

First equal, with 2.5% of the vote, were Sora (sky) and Pii. Third was Hana (flower) at 2.1%, fourth equal were Sakura (cherry blossom), Piiko, Pippi, Momo (peach, or if it were a chicken, perhaps thigh…) and Lemon on 1.3%, and ninth equal were Koko, Nana and Hina (chick), at 1.0%. Note that Pii and its variants are Japanese onomatopoeic bird calls.

For boy birds, Sora was top at 2.7%, then Popo second at 2.2%, and third equal at 1.6% were Hana, Pippi, Pipi and Maro.

For girl birds, Hana and Pii were top equal with 3.2%, Lemon second with 2.6%, and third equal were Koko, Sora and Nana.

Popular Japanese rabbit names

First was Maron (chestnut) with 1.5%, second Momo (peach) with 1.2%, third Moko with 1.1%, fourth equal Choko (chocolate) and Mimi (ear) at 1.0%, sixth equal were Uu, Hana (flower), Moka (mocha perhaps), and Sora (sky) at 0.9%, and tenth was Koko at 0.8%. For rabbits, brown-related names seem quite popular.

For boy rabbits, Maron was top with 1.2%, Moka second with 1.0%, Sora third at 0.9%, Kotaro fourth at 08%, and Rabi fifth at 0.7%.

For girl rabbits, Momo was top with 1.7%, second equal were Hana and Mimi at 1.4%, and fourth equal Hime (princess) and Maron at 1.2%.

Popular Japanese ferret names

The top ferret name was Momo (peach) at 1.3%, second was Choko at 1.1%, Kuu third at 1.0%, Ten fourth at 0.9%, fifth equal were Moka (mocha), Kotaro and Sakura (cherry blossom) at 0.8% and eighth equal were Kokoa (cocoa), Sora (sky) and Hime (princess) at 0.7%

For boy ferrets, first was Kotaro at 1.3%, second Ten at 1.1%, third Kuu at 1.0% and fourth equal Kai, Sora and Ponta at 0.9%

For girl ferrets, Momo was first with 1.8%, second was Hime at 1.4%, third equal were Choko (chocolate) and Rin at 1.3% and fifth equal were Sakura and Hana (flower) at 1.2%.

I hope you all feel suitably enlightened now!

goo Ranking recently published the results of what painful fashion failures people trying too hard to dress young make.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were female, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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.

Wifey occasionally strays into number 2 territory, and of course what Japanese woman doesn’t do 20?

Pictured here is Saki chan and Sayuri; Saki chan often falls into a number of the traps when she does her Evangelion cos-play as here despite being just 29 years old, but Sayuri regularly does just about everything below, but I think she manages to avoid looking too muttonesque… However, her husband has an ill-suited number 17 haircut.
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goo Ranking reported on a survey into what women think men should check at a minimum regarding their personal grooming.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were female, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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. This question was for the females only.

Number 22, clothes not being creased (that is, ensuring they were recently ironed) is one that I never understand in Japan. Most people are well-dressed for almost every occasion, but ironing is usually skimped on (both men and women), and regardless of how trendy an item is, if it looks as if you put it on straight out of the washing machine it never looks good to me.
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goo Ranking published a survey on what behaviour by Japanese people abroad that they have seen and thought “I really shouldn’t do that sort of thing myself…”.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were female, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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.

As pictured above, as a foreigner who has participated in Japanese tours abroad, that sort of group photo behaviour is quite embarrassing from my point of view. Another behaviour that I witnessed that I would certainly never think of trying myself was when our tour was waiting by our bus, which happened to be a brightly-painted old-fashioned bus, when a young couple came along and asked one of our party if they could take their photo. After this was done, four of the middle-aged ladies in the group one after another asked if they could get their photo taken with the boyfriend, handing their camera to the girlfriend to make sure she was out of the picture.
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goo Ranking took a look at what guys can’t understand about female friendships and what girls can’t understand about male friendships.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were female, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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 wife does most of the things in Q1, and I don’t understand them at all either, so I’m glad to see it’s not just a cultural gap that I’m experiencing!
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goo Ranking took a look at what keyboard keys people frankly don’t really know how to use in Windows.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of February 2013 1,122 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 60.1% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 16.6% in their twenties, 26.5% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 10.6% 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.

Let’s have Hello Kitty again!

Note that for number 3 especially, to find out what the F-keys do they just need to press the help key… For myself, I only know what the unshifted F1, F5 and F10 do; I’m not aware of the Microsoft-recommended behaviour of the rest.
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Here is one of these rather odd surveys that goo Ranking is apt to do, a look (oo-err!) at when in a changing room with female friends, what aspect of their underwear can you not help being curious about. This question was for the women only.

Demographics

Over the 28th of February and 1st of March 2013 1,019 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 100.0% of the sample were female, 0.0% in their teens, 34.0% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 32.8% in their forties, 0.0% in their fifties, and 0.0% 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. This question was for the women only.

Here’s an interesting fact: in Japanese catalogues, the underwear models are almost exclusively white, western women. The reason is that if they are fellow Japanese, the women end up paying more attention to the model than the underwear.

Most of the high street underwear shops in Japan seem to feature designs that would be fitting for only either (a) a prostitute, or (b) a 14 year old girl.
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goo Ranking recently took a look at the female body shapes that men like.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were femle, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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. This question was for the men only.

I am surprised that huge breasts appear lower down than small ones! My wife has a theory that tall foreign men prefer short Japanese women, although I wonder if it is just because we tend to remember the height mismatches and forget the more size-compatable couples?

Note that for weight, the four categories in ascending size are slim, average, well built, and fat. The other two statistics should be self-explanatory.
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