First prize: last five digits 97085

10,000 yen

Second prize: last four digits 2344

Choose any one of 38 different products, from foods like mango juice to electrical items like an ultrasonic toothbrush.

Third prize: last two digits 72 or 74

Otoshidama stamp set – a fifty yen and an eighty yen stamp, pictured above.

If you have matched any of these, go to your nearest post office before the 22nd of July 2014 and either collect the stamps while you wait, or apply by post or fax for the second prizes. The full prize line-up can be seen here. How did you get on? I got just the one stamp set, sadly.

Demographics

The survey was conducted between the 4th and 8th of October 2013 where 1,074 people completed a private web-based questionnaire. However, goo Ranking have recently revamped their ranking page and have dropped the link to their demographics. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

The reason I say it was a hot topic was because there was a rash of “sexless youth” stories based on a poorly-translated or misconstrued survey into young people and relationships.

Ranking results

Q1: Why have you been unable to find a guy for many a year? (Sample size=women)

Rank		Score
1	It’s too much of a bother dating someone	100
2	I’m an indoor type, so I don’t get the chance to meet guys	84.9
3	I cannot engage guys in conversation	75.3
4	I don’t know what’s best to talk to guys about	73.1
5	I have no confidence so cannot get any self-affirmation	63.4
6	I forget to keep touch	57.0
7	My ideals are too high	54.8
8	I just end up hanging out with other girls	49.5
9	When I try to be feminine I sound all rough	43.0
10	I’m a long way away from being what would normally be considered beautiful	38.7
11	I’m narrow-minded and self-centred	36.6
12=	I’m very particular about the look I like in guys	33.3
12=	I dream of guys too much	33.3
14	When I talk to guys I get all nervous and act suspiciously	32.3
15	As I’m scared of being dumped, I cannot take a step towards love	30.1
16	I cannot show consideration	29.0
17=	I can only love in 2D	26.9
17=	I end up being too demanding with partners	26.9
19	I have no fashion sense	24.7
20	Whatever I do, I do it awkwardly	23.7
21	I cannot sense the mood	22.6
22	I’m too busy at work, so don’t have the breathing space to deal with love	18.3
23	I cannot look people in the eye when I talk to them	15.1
24	My mother keeps me on a short leash	14.0
25=	I love myself too much to be able to love others	11.8
25=	The guys around me’s conversation level is too low and doesn’t suit me	11.8
27	I end up looking down on people when I talk to them	10.8
28=	I stink! (of body odour)	8.6
28=	I am devoting my life to something more important than love	8.6
30	I don’t a discerning eye for guys	7.5

Q2: Why have you been unable to find a girl for many a year? (Sample size=men)

Rank		Score
1	It’s too much of a bother dating someone	100
2	I’m an indoor type, so I don’t get the chance to meet girls	90.7
3	My ideals are too high	84.9
4	I don’t know what’s best to talk to girls about	82.6
5	I cannot engage girls in conversation	80.2
6	I’m very particular about the look I like in girls	68.6
7	I have no confidence so cannot get any self-affirmation	65.1
8	As I’m scared of being dumped, I cannot take a step towards love	58.1
9	I’m a long way away from being what would normally be considered handsome	55.8
10	I just end up hanging out with other guys	52.3
11	I’m narrow-minded and self-centred	50.0
12	I forget to keep touch	47.7
13	I have no fashion sense	44.2
14=	I cannot show consideration	40.7
14=	I cannot sense the mood	40.7
16	When I try to be masculine I do it weakly	38.4
17=	I cannot look people in the eye when I talk to them	36.0
17=	When I talk to girls I get all nervous and act suspiciously	36.0
19=	I dream of girls too much	34.9
19=	Whatever I do, I do it awkwardly	34.9
21	I can only love in 2D	30.2
22	I’m too busy at work, so don’t have the breathing space to deal with love	27.9
23	I end up being too demanding with partners	25.6
24	I stink! (of body odour)	24.4
25	I soon end up showing off how great I am	23.3
26=	I have an extreme obsession with cleanliness	18.6
26=	I don’t a discerning eye for girls	18.6
28=	I love myself too much to be able to love others	17.4
28=	I was too much of a ladies’ man in a previous life, so I am working off my bad karma	17.4
30	The girls around me’s conversation level is too low and doesn’t suit me	16.3

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. This question was for the women only.

Ranking reslut

Q: What habits, actions of men makes you feel “Aww, that’s cute” and tug on your heartstrings? (Sample size=674, female)

Rank		Score
1	Him enjoying eating food	100
2	Him looking so happy and smiling as he comes to meet me	70.8
3	Him looking over his shoulder and waving when he leaves	61.4
4	His innocent face as he sleeps	59.1
5	His lonely looks as he leaves	52.6
6	His eyes lighting up as he talks about his hobbies	45.8
7=	His grin when he looks at small animals	44.2
7=	His dependent hugs he gives me	44.2
9	Him joyfully telling me about the evaluation he got at work	41.6
10	Him sulking when I talk with other guys	34.7
11	His morning hair	32,1
12	Him getting lonely when I don’t email, call	29.9
13	Him soon going red at embarrassing things	29.5
14	Him rubbing his eyes and mumbling when he wakes up	25.6
15	Him being shy and telling guys to stop it when they tease him	25.0
16	Him drunk and sleepy	24.7
17	Him casually sending me email when he buys, eats something	23.1
18	Him loving hamburgers, curry, other children’s menu items and always ordering them	18.2
19	Him saying “I’m hungry!”	17.9
20	Him talking in his sleep	16.9
21	Him using cute smiley marks in email	14.9
22	Him repeatedly telling jokes to try to get people to laugh	14.0
23	Him always flinching when trying to use eye drops	11.7
24	Him putting T-shirts on back-to-front	10.7
25	Him disliking scary stories	9.7

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th of October 2012 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.2% of the sample were female, 10.5% in their teens, 13.7% in their twenties, 26.6% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 11.7% in their fifties, and 9.9% 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.

No, I don’t have a clue about drinking wine in a bath robe!

Here’s two wine buffs in the buff who exploded onto the scene a few years ago, then, as these one trick ponies tend to do, imploded a few months later, and were reduced to scenes like this…

Ranking result

Q: What tedious words and actions do self-styled wine lovers do? (Sample size=1,064)

Rank		Score
1	They have a huge stock of wine trivia	100
2	They show off their wine knowledge, but have nothing to say on other topics	48.3
3	They make a big scene of swishing the wine around in the glass	40.1
4	They instruct people how to drink wine	36.5
5	They turn their noses up at cheap wine	36.2
6	They are particular about matching food with wine	35.3
7	They have a collection of expensive wines	27.7
8	They are always on about the vintage of the wine	24.1
9	They have a tasting session before ordering wine	23.5
10	They order wine according to their own sensibilites, not if it matches the food	22.0
11	They explain the taste too abstractly	20.1
12	They boast about being able to order wine	18.7
13	They are particular about wine regions	18.3
14	They get ecstatic when sniffing wine	18.1
15	They only get loquacious when drinking wine	16.9
16	They drink from an over-large wine glass	16.1
17=	After a bath at home they wear a bath robe for wine drinking	15.3
17=	They are fussy about how the wine is poured	15.3
19	They sniff the wine cork	14.7
20	They recite lines from wine-themed comics	14.2

First prize: 030625

Choose any one from a 40 inch Sharp Aquos LED backlit LCD televison, a JTB holiday, either three nights in Shanghai or Honolulu, 2 nights in Seoul, Sapporo, Naha or Tokyo for two, or one night in one of 52 domestic hot springs resorts plus 20,000 yen’s worth of gift vouchers, Toshiba dynabook notebook plus Fujifilm FinePix JX800 digital camera plus Canon PIXUS MG4130 printer, Sharp Healthio microwave oven AX-MX2-R and Panasonic Home Bakery SD-BH104 and Zoujirishi IH rice cooker NP-NC10-TC, or 20,000 points worth of office goods from a Business Choice catalogue.

Most of the items are pretty much the same as last year.

Second prize: 071658, 153787, or 675457

Choose any one from a Sharp Plasma Buster combined humidifier and air purifier KC-A50-W, Canon IXY 410F SL digital camera plus Green House digital photo frame GHV-DF7DW plus a 4GB SD card, an Xbox360 4GB plus Kinect, a day return trip to one of 119 domestic hotels, or a Tobu non-puncturing tyre-equipped folding bicycle HB-160SUS-NT.

Third prize: last four digits 2511

Choose any one food item from 38 different ones on offer, from Godiva cookies to 125 grammes of dried shiitake mushrooms.

Fourth prize: last two digits 27 or 44

Otoshidama stamp set – a fifty yen and an eighty yen stamp, pictured above.

If you have matched any of these, go to your nearest post office before the 23th of July 2012 and either collect the stamps while you wait, or apply for any of the bigger prizes. The full prize line-up can be seen here. How did you get on? I’ll check mine later.

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th of September 2011 1,112 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 70.8% of the sample were female, 13.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 28.1% in their thirties, 25.5% in their forties, 8.7% in their fifties, and 6.0% 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.

Number two was rather difficult to translate, as I wasn’t quite sure of the exact nuance in the phrase! I’m not really sure what my own answer would be, but for number one, given the availability of the internet these days, being caught *cough* reading *cough* an inappropriate web site must be an ever-present danger for teenagers.

According to a random photo on flickr, even grannies can be caught doing number one…

Ranking result

Q: What would you most hate your family to see? (Sample size=1,112)

Rank		Score
1	Me reading a dirty mag	100
2	Me starkers and euphorically liberated	82.0
3	Me practising my killer look in front of the mirror	81.3
4	Me singing along to music in my room	71.3
5	Me crying watching a drama, etc	60.3
6	Me talking dirty with my boyfriend/girlfriend	57.7
7	Me dancing in my room	56.7
8	Me doing a monologue in the style of someone off the television	53.7
9	Me shaving my legs, etc	49.7
10	Me just having broken up	46.0
11	Me practising my chat-up lines with an imaginary partner	45.0
12	Me trying to squeeze into clothes a size too small	35.0
13	Me writing a poem	33.3
14	Me earnestly trying to cast a spell	30.0
15	Me supposedly on a diet but pigging out on sweets	26.7
16	Me dressing up in a costume	26.7
17	Me looking longingly at my collection of items	21.3
18	Me striking a pose from a manga, anime	19.3
19	Me playing air guitar	19.0
20	Me practising winning an argument with a hated enemy	14.3
21	The red-penned test paper that I threw away	8.3

First prize: 651694

Choose any one from a 40 inch Sharp Aquos LED backlit LCD televison, a JTB holiday, either three nights in Hawaii or Hong Kong, 2 nights in Korea, or one night in one of 53 domestic hot springs resorts plus 30,000 or 50,000 yen’s worth of gift vouchers, Toshiba dynabook T350/34AW-U notebook plus Fujifilm FinePix Z80 digital camera plus Canon PIXUS MG5130 printer, Sanyo CY-SPA226 electric bicycle, or 200,000 yen’s worth of office goods from a Kokuyo catalogue.

Interestingly, compared to last year the TV has been upgraded from 32 inches to 40 inches.

Second prize: 403580, 228949, or 022471

Choose any one from a Nintendo Wii plus Wii Party, Canon XY DIGITAL 400F SL digital camera plus Green House digital photo frame GHV-DF7DW plus a 4GB SD card, Sharp Plamsa Cluster air purifier KC-Z45-W, one night at one of 93 domestic hotels, or a De’Longhi coffee maker CMB6-WH.

Third prize: last four digits 8363

Choose any one food item from 38 different ones on offer, from 264 sheets of seaweed to two bottles of mango juice.

Fourth prize: last two digits 69 or 02

Otoshidama stamp set – a fifty yen and an eighty yen stamp, pictured above.

If you have matched any of these, go to your nearest post office before the 25th of July 2010 and either collect the stamps while you wait, or apply for any of the bigger prizes. The full prize line-up can be seen here. I’ve just checked mine and I’ve won two sheets of the stamps above, the same as last year. How did you get on?

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of November 2010 1,171 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were female, 11.3% in their teens, 19.1% in their twenties, 29.0% in their thirties, 23.4% in their forties, 9.6% in their fifties, and 7.6% 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.

I’d like to hear “Permanent Residency versus naturalisation”, perhaps, and also regarding number 7, why people need to ask which toilet paper is better! What would you like to hear?

Ranking result

Q: About what would you like to hear an experts opinion on which was better? (Sample size=1,171, female)

Rank		Score
1	Renting versus buying a home	100
2	Fixed-rate versus variable-rate interest (mortgage, etc)	71.0
3	Insurance-only versus combined insurance and savings plan	68.1
4	Term insurance versus whole-life insurance	66.0
5	IH versus gas cooker	53.2
6	New versus old property	45.4
7	Single-ply versus double-ply toilet paper	45.2
8	Working with your hands versus office work	42.4
9	Men versus women	39.1
10	Living Tokyo versus the regions	37.9
11	Solar versus mains electricity	37.0
12	LED versus flourescent bulbs	36.5
13	Over-the-counter versus prescription medicine	35.6
14	Single versus married life	34.9
15	Buying a car versus renting	30.9
16	Permanent hair removal versus shaving	30.4
17	Phoning from mobile to fixed-line versus mobile to mobile	29.7
18	Regular mail versus parcel post	26.0
19=	Soft versus hard contact lenses	23.9
19=	Occasionally cooking at home versus eating out	23.9

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of November 2010 1,171 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were female, 11.3% in their teens, 19.1% in their twenties, 29.0% in their thirties, 23.4% in their forties, 9.6% in their fifties, and 7.6% 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.

I’d say 17=, a reporter, is the easiest job over the New Year – if it’s hard news, they can start writing year-end wrap-ups ahead of times; if it’s the latest news, on television at least 90% of it is interviews with people leaving or coming back at airports, bullet train stations, etc, reports of enormous car jams at all the usual motorway locations, and a few bits of stock footage of preparations or the aftermath of New Year at the popular temples. I’m sure they could even run last year’s columns and nobody would notice!

All photos from flickr – click on them to see them in full detail – apologies for some not being terribly seasonal, but it was hard enough to find the right subjects, let alone the locations.

Ranking result

Q: What do you think is the busiest profession over the New Year? (Sample size=1,171)

Rank		Score
1	Post office staff	100
2	Shinto priest, shrine girl	61.2
3	Policeperson	51.7
4	Department store employee	50.2
5	Railway employee	49.7
6	Restaurant staff	44.1
7	Home delivery staff	43.2
8	Hotel, inn staff	36.7
9	Medical professional	23.4
10	Hairdresser	20.9
11	Karaoke box staff	20.6
12	Convenience store employee	20.4
13	Theme park staff	19.6
14	Buddhist priest	19.3
15	Security guard	16.6
16	Computer server facilities management staff	9.7
17=	Printer	8.9
17=	Newspaper reporter	8.9
19	Tour guide	8.7
20	Telephone company employee	5.1

Demographics

Between the 1st and 11th of October 2010 13,925 members of the goo Research monitor panel who were guardians of children of elementary school age completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No demographic information on the children was supplied, but the adults were 54.4% female, 1.1% in their twenties, 40.8% in their thirties, 53.2% in their forties, and 4.8% aged fifty or older. It is also not clear how guardians with multiple children completed the survey.

At least most of the children seem to be well-policed regarding their internet use, with the majority spending less than an hour online a week, and email and chat being less frequent activities.

Research results

First, the people who did not allow their children on the internet, namely 4,041 or 29.0% of the sample, were eliminated and the following questions posed to the remaining 9,884.

Q1: At what age did your child first start using the internet? (Sample size=9,884)

Up to two years old	0.9%
Three to five years old	18.3%
First year of elementary school	21.8%
Second year of elementary school	12.0%
Third year of elementary school	18.6%
Fourth year of elementary school	16.0%
Fifth year of elementary school	8.6%
Sixth year of elementary school	3.8%

Q2: How long does your child spend accessing the internet from a computer? (Sample size=9,884)

Less than 30 minutes a week	37.0%
30 minutes to 1 hour per week	26.1%
1 to 2 hours per week	15.3%
2 to 3 hours per week	8.8%
3 to 4 hours per week	4.6%
4 to 5 hours per week	2.7%
5 to 7 hours per week	2.4%
More than 7 hours a week	3.1%

Q3: What does you child do on the internet? (Sample size=9,884, multiple answer)

Play games	58.9%
Search for hobby, entertainment-related information	52.8%
Search for study, homework-related information	51.1%
View web sites	30.8%
Do online study	17.5%
Gather local information	9.7%
Email	3.8%
Update own blog, web site	1.9%
Participate in web communities such as BBS, SNS, blog, etc	1.8%
Chat	1.4%
Other	4.3%

Q4: Does your child’s computer have filtering software, use a filtering service? (Sample size=9,884)

Yes, currently	25.8%
Know about them but don’t use (to SQ)	57.3%
Used to use but not now	4.1%
Don’t know if it’s being used	7.8%
Don’t know what filtering is	5.0%

Those with one computer per child were more likely to have filtering set up.

Q4SQ: Why do you not use filtering software, a filtering service? (Sample size=6,066, multiple answer)

Not needed because I don’t think they are accessing bad pages	52.2%
Inconvenient when adults want to use	21.0%
Awkward to apply for, set up	14.8%
Don’t know how to use it	9.9%
Not free	8.0%
Not needed so they can learn about all the internet	7.1%
Don’t trust filtering services, software	3.4%
Other	19.7%

Q5: Has your child ever talked to you about something dangerous or unsettling they encountered using the internet? (Sample size=9,884)

Yes	3.3%
No	96.7%

Some of the bad things listed were getting defrauded or ganked in onlinbe games, people asking for real names in chat, scary movies on YouTube, fraudulent spam, accidentally registering for adult sites, seeing a movie with a child-oriented title but with inappropriate contents, breaking up with friends in online games, etc.