世論 What Japan Thinks

A recent survey from goo Research, conducted in conjuction with the All About Japan web site, looked at awareness of crime prevention in those living alone.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of January 2008 1,017 members of the goo Research online monitor panel aged between 20 and 34, single and living alone, and regular full-time employees completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample was female, 28.0% was aged between 20 and 24, 39.4% between 25 and 29, and 32.6% between 30 and 34.

I’m very suprised by the results of Q6 as shown in the pie chart above. Barely one in twenty are on speaking terms with the neighbours, which is much lower than I might have expected. I’d love to hear the reasons why.

Just to explain the anti thumb-turn covers, these try to prevent one kind of housebreaking attack where someone sticks a wire through your letterbox and turns the lock from the inside.
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This headline will no doubt have most of my readers groaning, but more of that a couple of paragraphs further down. This was one of the curious results from a recent survey conducted by Japan Research Council into concerns about environmental problems.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 19th of November 2007 (before the aforementioned Japan Tobacco had a number of their China-made frozen gyoza laced with poison, a case that is still unresolved) 1,200 people were randomly selected from resident databases in 200 representative areas. From each of the locations 6 willing survey respondents were chosen for face-to-face interviews. 50.4% of the sample were female, 6.2% were in their teens, 15.2% in their twenties, 17.9% in their thirties, 15.2% in their forties, 18.5% in their fifties, 15.9% in their sixties, and 11.1% in their seventies.

Although Toyota do produce a lot of fuel-efficient cars, with the Prius the star amongst them, and are not slow to blow their own trumpet on the topic, other cars in their range are not so great fuel-wise, and indeed as I mentioned before, their new Noah and Voxy have 10% worse fuel consumption than the old models! As for Japan Tobacco, this survey highlights how clever, evily clever, their advertising team are. Smoking outside has been changed from a health issue to litter and safety issues, with the dangers being poking children in the eyes with lighted ciggies or dropping butt ends rather than dying horribly from cancer or living out your twilight years dragging an oxygen bottle behind you. Also note that Japan Tobacco outranks Sharp, the world’s largest producer of solar panels.

This survey can be cross-referenced with another recent one on Warm Biz from the same company.
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This is a rather short but still interesting survey from goo Research, conducted in conjunction with the Mainichi Shimbun, into the proposed reforms to the national curriculum, particularly with regard to elementary school education.

Demographics

Over the 29th of February and the 1st of March 2008 1,069 members of the goo Research online monitor group aged 20 or older were randomly-selected and completed a private internet-based questionnaire. More detailed demographics were not given.

Some of the reforms proposed are outlined in this article from the Japan Times.

These changes are to address the drop in academic level in international tests (or is it that other countries are improving, or a mix of both?) by studying more. Looking at the league leader Finland, it can be seen that there are neither long school hours nor much pressure, whereas Japan’s solution seems to be adding more hours and more pressures. I’ve seen television programmes investigating Japanese education, and the problem teachers identify is too much overtime for them to be able to prepare for lessons or to be at their best when teaching. Overtime has indeed steadily increased over the decades, so more hours in classes and a new curriculum to learn is not going to fix that.

Most foreigners I know who teach in schools also highlight the lack of classroom dicipline and too many events (sports day, culture days, etc), the preparation for which disrupt teaching schedules for both teachers and students.

The teaching of pi equals three is actually true to a certain extent. In the current guidelines, teachers should use 3.14, but in certain circumstances (what circumstances, the curriculum guidelines do not say) three may be used.
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One of Junichiro Koizumi’s (a recent Prime Minister of Japan) legacies are the twin energy-saving initiatives, Cool Biz for the summer, and in this survey conducted by NRC (Japan Research Centre), Warm Biz.

Demographics

Between the 30th of January and the 11th of February 2008 1,200 people from NRC’s online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 605 were feamel, 75 were in their teens, 181 in their twenties, 215 in their thirties, 184 in their forties, 221 in their fifties, 192 in their sixties, and 132 in their seventies.

Our office is sure to stick up the posters every summer and winter promoting the campaigns, although the effort put into carrying them out is minimal, if not often nonexistant. Today, as most days of the winter, the temperature in the office was a comfortable 24 degrees Celcius, 4 degrees over the recommended maximum. Last night’s and this morning’s train was also rather hot, although that could have had something to do with both times being jammed in tight!
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With the source of the gyoza poisoning still to be determined, here’s a timely survey from goo Research in conjunction with the Yomiuri Shimbun into food safety.

Demographics

Towards the end of January 2008, but before the poisoned gyoza scandal broke, 1,089 members of the goo Reseach monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. The age or sex breakdown was not reported.

The full survey would have been interesting to see, but goo Research sadly only reported three questions. An earlier survey from MyVoice on Chinese products provides a useful cross-reference.
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One popular survey from last year was a survey into what Japan thinks of OpenCourseWare, freely available university material. Recently, goo Research released the results of their second annual survey into these matters, namely making university lectures publicly available.

Demographics

The fieldwork for this survey was conducted between the 13th and 19th of December 2007, with 1,000 members of the goo Research monitor group completing a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, with 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% aged fifty or older. By educational history, 7.1% had only completed middle school (although given that 20.0% were in their teens, some may still be in high school), 27.5% high school, 10.8% vocational or other types of secondary schooling, 9.5% junior two-year college, 25.6% university arts course, 12.8% university science, 1.2% university medical or pharmacutical, 3.4% post-graduate or business school, 0.4% overseas university or post-graduate, and 1.2% other.

OpenCourseWare is the term coined to describe this phemonenom, pioneered in the USA by MIT’s OpenCourseWare project. In Japan there is the Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium, JOCW, based at Keio University.

Note that since the last survey it appears that Tokyo Geijutsu University and Hitotsubashi University have stopped offering OpenCourseWare, but Doshisha University, Ritsumeikan University, Kansai University, Kyoto Seika University, and Kagawa Education Institute of Nutrition have started.
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With the biggest stories in Japan this week being pesticide poisoning from Chinese gyoza, which is looking like a deliberate case of tampering with the packaging line, according to an expert on NHK news tonight, this recent survey from MyVoice on the image of Chinese products is most timely, although given the figures here China’s image can hardly sink any lower.

Demographics

Over the first five days of January 2008 12,669 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties.

I personally try to avoid as much Chinese foodstuffs as possible. One problem, though, especially for prepared foods, is that although the preparation might happen in Japan thus meriting a Made in Japan label, the ingredients may be imported. For instance, I have heard that some brands of instant noodles use cabbages from China. I saw a program on food safety in the Chinese domestic market, and if that is anything to base tourism decisions on, if you are going to the Beijing Olympics, you would be best advised to bring your own food and make sure your travel insurance is up to date!

On the other hand, I do a lot of shopping at the 100 yen shop, and the vast majority of their brands are made in China, but a laundry net or a calendar is hardly going to kill you! It is also pretty difficult to avoid Made in China clothes, as retailers from UniQlo to Aeon use the country as their primary source.
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[part 1][part 2][part 3]

This is a story I saw reported in the English press as merely a snippet of the results of Q6, that 79% of Japanese want internet filtering for children, but that one figure is perhaps one of the more dull numbers to come from this survey from the Cabinet Office Japan on ensuring internet safety.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 25th of November 2007 5,000 people were randomly selected from presumably the voter rolls to take part in the survey. Of the 5,000, 3,006 agreed to complete the survey, conducted by means of face-to-face interviews. The sample was 52.7% female, 8.8% in their twenties, 16.0% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 20.2% in their fifties, 21.2% in their sixties, and 17.7% seventy or older. 26.3% of the sample had children under the age of 18. Of these 790 people, 35.3% were under school age, 45.6% of elementary school age, 28.6% of middle school age, 26.7% of high school age, and 6.5% had already graduated, quit school, or other. Of the parents with school age children, 23.9% gave mobile phones to all their children, 17.0% gave them to some, 58.6% to none, and 0.5% didn’t know.

Note that human rights abuse, slander, shopping fraud and copyright infringement are out of scope for the Internet Hotline Centre. In addition, for all you music and video thieves out there, only 20.0% of the survey think the police should be targeting them.
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[part 1][part 2][part 3]

This is a story I saw reported in the English press as merely a snippet of the results of Q6, that 79% of Japanese want internet filtering for children, but that one figure is perhaps one of the more dull numbers to come from this survey from the Cabinet Office Japan on ensuring internet safety.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 25th of November 2007 5,000 people were randomly selected from presumably the voter rolls to take part in the survey. Of the 5,000, 3,006 agreed to complete the survey, conducted by means of face-to-face interviews. The sample was 52.7% female, 8.8% in their twenties, 16.0% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 20.2% in their fifties, 21.2% in their sixties, and 17.7% seventy or older. 26.3% of the sample had children under the age of 18. Of these 790 people, 35.3% were under school age, 45.6% of elementary school age, 28.6% of middle school age, 26.7% of high school age, and 6.5% had already graduated, quit school, or other. Of the parents with school age children, 23.9% gave mobile phones to all their children, 17.0% gave them to some, 58.6% to none, and 0.5% didn’t know.

Q5 and Q6 show an interesting result. First, over three in five knew nothing about filtering, but after being shown one card highlighting that 80% of crimes associated with deai-kei sites involve children, and another stating that filtering can block access to deai-kei sites, nearly four in five reach the conclusion that filtering is necessary. Q7 and Q8 repeat a similar pattern; 70% had never heard of the Internet Hotline Centre, yet 70% could conclude that it was a good thing.

That Internet Hotline Centre has some interesting information; for example, on the reporting form there is one option:

Information which is difficult to judge illegal but seems to be illegal (Example: Displaying child pornography)

Is that saying what I think it’s saying?
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[part 1][part 2][part 3]

This is a story I saw reported in the English press as merely a snippet of the results of Q6, that 79% of Japanese want internet filtering for children, but that one figure is perhaps one of the more dull numbers to come from this survey from the Cabinet Office Japan on ensuring internet safety.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 25th of November 2007 5,000 people were randomly selected from presumably the voter rolls to take part in the survey. Of the 5,000, 3,006 agreed to complete the survey, conducted by means of face-to-face interviews. The sample was 52.7% female, 8.8% in their twenties, 16.0% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 20.2% in their fifties, 21.2% in their sixties, and 17.7% seventy or older. 26.3% of the sample had children under the age of 18. Of these 790 people, 35.3% were under school age, 45.6% of elementary school age, 28.6% of middle school age, 26.7% of high school age, and 6.5% had already graduated, quit school, or other. Of the parents with school age children, 23.9% gave mobile phones to all their children, 17.0% gave them to some, 58.6% to none, and 0.5% didn’t know.

In part one, Q1 notes that just over two in five are regular internet users. This may cause some of you to dismiss the results, but these non-users may very well have children or grandchildren that may encounter nasty stuff on the internet, so their opinion should not be readily dismissed. In Q2SQ, there is the very Japanese crime of “One-click fraud” – perhaps like Amazon’s One Click Shopping™, you click on a link on a dodgy site and up comes a message telling you you owe them a vast sum of money for membership fees.
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