世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1][part 2]

Macromill published their annual survey on new adults, looking at how the latest batch of twenty year olds look at themselves and their future

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of December 2009 516 members of the Macromill monitor group who have recently or will soon be turning twenty thus eligible to attend a Coming of Age ceremony this weekend completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female.

Most foreigners in Japan are more interested in photographing the kimono on display, not that I can blame them for that, but I think that looking past the stereotypes of partying with Mickey Mouse and drunken neds starting fights at the ceremonies is much more intellectually interesting and much less predictable than the usual coverage.
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With Facebook perhaps poised to do a full-on launch in Japan, iShare decided to look at Facebook’s requirement for real names, and real names on the internet in general.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 10th of December 2009 492 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 30.1% in their twenties, 28.5% in their thirties, and 41.5% in their forties.

I’ve got no problem using my real name, although I know my wife is pretty paranoid about doing so for various reasons that seem rather unclear to me. “People will know who you are and…” but I never find out what comes after the “and”. This does seem to be a rather common trait on the Japanese internet, as more often than not there are no names and no unobscured faces adorning the average blog.

Now I think about it, most of the people on Facebook that I have friended have their real names on display, but it never really registered until I read this survey!
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Let’s end the year on a low point, by looking at a recent survey from iShare into how 2009 was financially.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 24th of December 2009 505 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.6% of the sample were male, 30.7% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, and 36.0% in their forties.

2009 was pretty horrendous for me – I recently got my end of year tax summary which showed that my salary was down close to 10% due to both stealth cuts through the bonus system and a renegotation of the overtime system which results in more money in my monthly pay-packet but less in the bonus. Also this year our mortgage discount rate ran out, which was another few percentage off the family budget. On the What Japan Thinks front, AdSense revenue has never recovered from two years ago when it suddenly died for reasons that were never too clear. Traffic is about double from then, but click-through and earnings per click are down. I’ve never really managed to understand affiliate advertising, despite many attempts…
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Yahoo! Value Insight recently published the results of their look into your 2009 and 2010.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 4th of December 2009 1,000 members of the Yahoo! Value Insight monitor panel. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 17.6% in their twenties, 22.1% in their thirties, 19.3% in their forties, 20.9% in their fifties, and 20.1% in their sixties.

My kanji to sum up my year from a work perspective would probably be 鬱, which I’ll leave you to look up. My in vogue items would be masks (not me personally, though) and limited edition snacks – this year it’s not just millions of Kit-Kat flavours, but just about every brand has been pumping out a new limited edition every month. This month alone I’ve bought the following limited editions: milk coffee and sparkling strawberry Kit-Kats, berry Pocky, two different kinds of strawberry Takenoko no Sato, strawberry Pie no Mori, and two other winter chocolates.
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The new government in Japan seems to have been conducting an awful lot of surveys recently, with the latest one from the Cabinet Office Japan being on a gender-equal society. This survey was last conducted five years ago and translated three years ago.

Demographics

5,000 adults over the age of twenty were selected at random from all over the country, and an attempt was made to conduct face-to-face interviews with them over the period of the 1st to 18th of October 2009. 3,240 people, or 64,8%, were available and agreed to take part. 53.4% of the sample were female, 9.8% in their twenties, 14.6% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 19.0% in their fifties, 22.2% in their sixties and 18.1% aged seventy or older. 48.5% were emploted, 9.9% self-employed, 3.7% in the family business, and 37.9% homemakers, studens, or retired. 74.6% were married, 0.7% were unmarried but living with their partner, 4.3% divorced, 5.7% widowed, and 14.8% unmarried. Finally, 77.6% had children.

Q10SQ is a bit of a strange set of answers to me, although perhaps it is just my intellectual thought processes that say exposure to those who don’t want to see it is not really the fault of the media on the whole. I would also put the objectification of women much higher up the ranking, but I don’t think there is the same degree of awareness in Japan as in the west.
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The new government in Japan seems to have been conducting an awful lot of surveys recently, with the latest one from the Cabinet Office Japan being on a gender-equal society. This survey was last conducted five years ago and translated three years ago.

Demographics

5,000 adults over the age of twenty were selected at random from all over the country, and an attempt was made to conduct face-to-face interviews with them over the period of the 1st to 18th of October 2009. 3,240 people, or 64,8%, were available and agreed to take part. 53.4% of the sample were female, 9.8% in their twenties, 14.6% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 19.0% in their fifties, 22.2% in their sixties and 18.1% aged seventy or older. 48.5% were emploted, 9.9% self-employed, 3.7% in the family business, and 37.9% homemakers, studens, or retired. 74.6% were married, 0.7% were unmarried but living with their partner, 4.3% divorced, 5.7% widowed, and 14.8% unmarried. Finally, 77.6% had children.

Q1 is pretty depressing, but also pretty accurate, with school education being about the only thing that seems to be relatively balanced.
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It’s getting towards the end of the year, so let’s have a look back at the top news and items from 2009 in this survey from Marcomill Inc.

Demographics

Over the 4th and 5th of December 2009 1,000 members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sexes were split exactly 50:50, and 25.0% were in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% between 50 and 69 years old.

My top news would be the DPJ’s victory, the arrest of Ichihashi, and the press reaction to the Noriko Sakai drugs bust. Top topical items would be the iPhone 3GS (I’m surprised it didn’t make it), the 1,000 yen toll road traffic jams, and the Odaiba Gundam. What’s yours?
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This is the first I’ve heard of such a thing as social lending, cash loans between individuals, but I consider myself educated after reading this survey on the matter conducted by iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 30th of November 2009 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 9% in their twenties, 31.7% in their thirties, 38.7% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 6.0% in their sixties.

There are apparently two main types of social lending; auction style (maneo being one example) and market style with AQUSH being one of this style.

I don’t think I’d touch any of these services with a barge pole – I would fear that they would be even more scammer-riddled than the average auction site!
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It’s getting to that time of year when we need to getting our New Year greetings prepared; this recent survey from Macromill Inc on this topic looked at not just the traditional postcards, but also electronic greetings.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 24th of November 2009 500 members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, although not quite 50:50 throughout each age band. 7.2% were in their teens (between 15 and 19 years old), 17.2% in their twenties, 20.2% in their thirties, 17.2% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, and 17.4% in their sixties.

It’s probably just my stinginess, but I’m extremely surprised that in Q1SQ3 there was no answer about “because it’s free” as the reason for sending electronic greetings!

Oh, and my New Year postcards got delivered today. My wife went a bit crazy ordering the cards, so we have Rilakkuma, two styles of Pooh, and Hello Kitty designs…
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[part 1][part 2]

The Cabinet Office Japan recently published the results of their survey into physical strength and sports amongst the Japanese population.

Demographics

Between the 24th of September and the 4th of October 2009 3,000 adults randomly selected from population rolls from all over the country were approached for face-to-face interviews. Of the 3,000, 1,925 people, or 64.2%, were able and willing to take part in the survey. The main reasons for not taking part were refusal and not being in when the inverviewer visited. 54.2% of the sample were female, 9.2% in their twenties, 15.0% in their thirties, 17.4% in their forties, 19.6% in their fifties, 22.5% in their sixties, and 16.3% aged seventy or older.

I find it curious that many people think that kids today have a worse sport and play environment than when they were kids. I can understand about the lack of empty spaces (although I would have thought that parental paranoia about kids in empty spaces would have been more of a factor), but having less time to play is perhaps the fault of the parents and schools, a mixture of parents sending their kids to cram schools and schools and their after-school club activities.
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