If there’s one subject that gets many foreigner eyeballs rolling, it’s the ongoing saga of the North Korean abduction issue, where about 20 or more years ago a number of Japanese nationals (and other nationals) were abducted by agents of North Korea, a subject kept alive by many politicians for political ends, as this survey from the Cabinet Office Japan perhaps demonstrates.
Demographics
Between the 7th and 17th of June 2012, 3,000 Japanese citizens aged 20 or older were selected at random from residency records were approached for face to face interviews. 1,912 people chose to answer the questions, but more detailed demographics were not provided. Note that this is the first time that selection method in these Cabinet Office surveys have mentioned that it is citizens; up until now it has just said people over 20, but since foreigners have recently been added to the main registry system, and that registry is used as the source for the random sampling, I presume they have decided to add the extra qualification.
There’s a number of reasons why North Korean abductions induce eye-rolling. For my part, it’s a combination of it being raised to such a level as appearing to sticking a spoke in the wheel of the six country talks on the DPRK, that the Koreans have said themselves that they consider the matter finalised, and by the most likely reality that the remaining missing people are dead. There’s also victims of international divorces gone bad who bring up the dissonance between Japan’s response to child abductions and North Korean abductions.
Note that the blue flag that the Prime Minister and other politicians wear is their yellow ribbon for the abductees. Read the rest of this entry »
With the London Olympics opening at the weekend, now is a good time to look at this survey from Macromill Research into said London Olympics.
Demographics
Over the 20th and 21st of June 2012 500 members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was exactly 250:250 male to female, and 25% in their twenties, 25% in their thirties, 25% in their forties, and 25% in their fifties.
I’ll probably watch nothing more than the highlight shows, myself, and perhaps the finals of the short-track athletics.
Looking at the list below, from what I know Kohei Uchimura should easily take gold in the men’s gymnastics, but Kosuke Kitajima is perhaps going to struggle to get gold. Koji Murofushi is over the hill, I think, but the women’s football team should get some colour of medal, although I suppose it depends on who they end up playing against in the knock-out stages. Read the rest of this entry »
japan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey by goo Research into matriculation gifts,
Demographics
Over the 8th and 9th of May 2012 1,062 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 17.7% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.
I don’t think I ever got such a present myself, and I do find the whole concept of getting money for starting work rather odd! Read the rest of this entry »
I’m not sure if my timing here is good or bad, but anyway, here is a survey from Macromill Inc looking at viewing the annular eclipse that happened this morning.
Demographics
Over the 16th and 17th of May 2012 1,000 members of the Macromill internet monitor group living in Tokyo or the surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens or twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.
I saw a quick glance filtered through the clouds when I was waiting for my train to work, then saw hordes of people waiting as I changed stations further along the way, although less than 10% appeared to have any form of eye protection at all!
NRC, Nippon Research Centre, a member of Gallup International Association, recently published the results of a shallow but broad survey on recent news topics.
Demographics
Between the 29th of February and the 12th of March 2012 1,200 people between the ages of 15 and 79 randomly selected from a geographically-sorted residents database were asked to complete a survey, the results of which were weighed by overall national demographics. 50.7% of the sample were female, 6.3% in their teens, 32.9% in their twenties or thirties, 33.8% in their forties or fifties, and 27.0% in their sixties or seventies.
To explain a few of the topics that you might be unfamiliar with, in Q6 currently, if a female member of the royal family or one of the two other aristocratic families marries a commoner, she becomes a commoner too. Given the lack of males in the current line of succession, the plan is that if one of the females marries, her husband will join the royal family. This is separate from the question of a female emperor – I think the current system allows it, but male heirs take priority.
Q8, direct elections for the prime minister, would need the constitution to be amended, and I thought a fundamental feature of any parliamentary system was that the prime minister is chosen by the elected members of the chamber. Are there countries where such elections are held?
Q9, One Osaka, is the most important grassroots political movement, nay revolution, in Japan today. The charismatic leader, Toru Hashimoto, an ex-lawyer and TV celeb, actually has a vision, and recent opinion polls in the Osaka area have indicated that his party (which still has no national policy documents, let alone candidates) could win around 80% of the seats. Ampontan is quite the fan, and has many articles on the man, each much more informative that all the professional English-language press put together. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently, Macromill Research took a close look at the usage patterns of 500 Facebook users, a survey that revealed a number of interesting trends. As it’s quite a large survey, I’ll split it into two parts.
Demographics
Over the 16th and 17th of February 2012 500 members of the Macromill monitor group who were current users of Facebook completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.8% of the sample were male, 2.2% in their teens, 21.2% in their twenties, 30.6% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 21.0% aged fifty or older.
One trend that can be seen comparing with last year is that the Japanese users are less concerned about the international nature. I don’t believe one can really ascribe that shift to some change in Japanese society’s view of foreigners, but instead I think it is just a natural shift given that according to Q2, over 60% of the users joined since the start of last year, so now there are more real-life Japanese friends to find. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently, Macromill Research took a close look at the usage patterns of 500 Facebook users, a survey that revealed a number of interesting trends. As it’s quite a large survey, I’ll split it into two parts.
Demographics
Over the 16th and 17th of February 2012 500 members of the Macromill monitor group who were current users of Facebook completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.8% of the sample were male, 2.2% in their teens, 21.2% in their twenties, 30.6% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 21.0% aged fifty or older.
It’s funny, but true overall, I think, that food is the top subject for posts and likes! I recently witnessed on Google+ (I’m not active at all on Facebook) a naturalised Japanese friend of mine post what I thought looked like quite an ordinary meal, but it managed about 12 +1s (likes), and every single one of these was from a Japanese name! Read the rest of this entry »
Between the 23rd and 25th of February 2012 1,066 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.0% in their teens, 17.7% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 16.1% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.
The app that I most hear people talking about is yurekuru for the iPhone. Fortunately, down here in Kansai there have been few significant shakers recently so I’ve never heard the alerts personally, but I read about many Tokyo residents who talk about whole roomfuls of people’s smartphones going off at the same time – there must be a YouTube video, and indeed there is, but just of a single phone:
Over the 25th and 26th of January 2012 683 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service who were married, in employment, had children in primary school or younger, and lived with their spouse and children completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 5.6% in their twenties, 52.6% in their thirties, and 41.9% in their forties.
Question six in particular might look a little out of place, but that is because the survey was sponsored by Logicool (Logitech) on the launch of their wide screen HD 1080 pixel web camera Logicool HD Pro Webcam c920. They also sponsored a second survey as part of their promotional campaign, but I haven’t translated it yet.
In Q1 and Q3 I don’t know if they are asking people to measure the time that they are in the same vicinity, specifically different rooms in the same house, or if they are asking when people are in the same room. Read the rest of this entry »
Central Research Services Inc recently published a survey looking at victims of crime, etc in Japan, and comparing it with similar surveys from Europe.
Demographics
In 2011 2,000 people over the age of 15 were randomly selected from resident registers to take part in the survey. At the end of May all bar those from two sampling points in Tohoku that were affected by the earthquake were interviewed face-to-face, and the remaining people were interviewed at the end of July. In total 1,251 responded to the questionnaire, with 50.5% of the sample female and 49.5% male. The age breakdown was not given.
These are really very surprising figures for me! I didn’t expect Japan to be so low on police legitimacy, for one thing. Recently there has been a spate of reports of police uselessness when responding to crimes, miscarriages of justice, etc which would have influenced public distrust of the overall criminal justice system, but questions on direct interactions with the system would suggest that even the average bobby on the beat is a bit bent.
If there’s one subject that gets many foreigner eyeballs rolling, it’s the ongoing saga of the North Korean abduction issue, where about 20 or more years ago a number of Japanese nationals (and other nationals) were abducted by agents of North Korea, a subject kept alive by many politicians for political ends, as this survey from the Cabinet Office Japan perhaps demonstrates.
With the London Olympics opening at the weekend, now is a good time to look at this survey from Macromill Research into said 
I’m not sure if my timing here is good or bad, but anyway, here is a survey from Macromill Inc looking at 
NRC, Nippon Research Centre, a member of Gallup International Association, recently published the results of a shallow but broad survey on 
Recently, Macromill Research took a close look at 
Recently, Macromill Research took a close look at 
With the first anniversary of the East Japan Great Earthquake Disaster approaching, with various 
As a break from the recent flood of goo Research, here is iShare looking at 
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