世論 What Japan Thinks

A recent survey from iShare into going to the cinema by oneself is a bit difficult for me to interpret, especially as I feel there should have been a question on why people go to the cinema by themselves rather than with others.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 10th of November 2009 531 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.3% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

Rather appropriately, I’m translating this survey as I’m riding on a train to meet my wife who went to see two movies alone today. Although a lot of foreigners complain about the cinema being 1,800 yen a ticket, if you’re regularly paying that much you’re doing it wrong! Today, for instance, is the first of the month, so all tickets are 1,000 yen each, plus by using the ticket stub in a restaurant in the shopping mall complex we can get a free cake each, plus we have cinema mileage cards so we get both bonus points that can be exchanged for popcorn and finally a see-six-get-one-free system.

Looking at the winter films below, and tying in with yesterday’s survey, a few of them seem to be live-action versions of manga or anime.
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This recent survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at the rather interesting issue of answering mobile phone calls.

Demographics

On the 24th of November 2009 800 mobile phone users completed a private mobile internet-based questionnaire (I think). The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 25.0% in their teens, 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.0% in their forties.

Note that just about all mobile phones in Japan will display the calling number, and if the caller is registered in the phone book the name will also display, which I guess is a pretty standard mobile feature all over the world! Calls from public phone boxes will display as number unknown, as well as people who dial a prefix to hide their caller ID.

For unknown numbers, there are a few databases of nuisance callers for you to check. The fastest way I find is to type the number straight into Google with no spaces or hyphens, and if a match (in Japanese of course!) comes up from one of these databases you can know it’s an unsolicited call. I’d give you a URL or two, but I don’t have them bookmarked as I always use the search method!
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Having looked in October at nuclear power in the Kinki region, today the topic is also nuclear power, but with a sample from all over the country, in a survey conducted by the Cabinet Office Japan.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 25th of October 2009 3,000 members of the public randomly selected from resident registries were approached for face-to-face interviews. 1,850 people, or 61.7%, agreed to take part in the survey. More detailed demographics were not given.

In Q5, the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) factor is rather high, but it’s not a surprising result. However, financial support (or bribes, I suppose) to communities hosting nuclear plants is something the government does, or more correctly did, as one of the many victims of the Democratic Party of Japan’s slash-and-burn attack on spending has been the abolition of the said government subsidy/bribe. The lack of this will surely affect local opinion in the areas that get selected for high-level nuclear waste disposal facilities.
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With one live-action version of a manga comic in cinemas right now (Kaiji) and another soon to come out (Nodame Cantabile), this recent survey from iShare into manga, anime and live action movies is quite timely.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 10th of November 2009 531 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.3% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

Not being a manga fan myself, I’m not really aware of any such activities, and even when it comes to Hollywood movies converting DC and Marvel characters to movies, I’m not familiar enough with the cartoon version to have any preconceptions shattered.
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This set of surveys from goo Ranking looks at what people want from their partners for Christmas, men from their girlfriends and women from their boyfriends, and what people don’t want from their partners for Christmas, men from their girlfriends and women from their boyfriends.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of October 2009 1,162 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 62.9% of the sample were female, 10.5% in their teens, 20.7% in their twenties, 30.8% in their thirties, 21.9% in their forties, 9.0% in their fifties, and 7.0% aged sixty or older.

I’ll stick with the number one choice, whatever. Judging by the huge preference amongst men for whatever, perhaps there is a sense that if they ask their partner for anything she will expect rather more in return, so by not specifying anything hopefully her expections for what she will receive will be lowered. That’s how I think, at least!
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…and heaven knows I’m ragingly horny now, as Morrissey never did sing, which serves by way of an introduction to this survey from goo Ranking into what moments make you wish you yourself were madly in love, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of October 2009 1,162 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 62.9% of the sample were female, 10.5% in their teens, 20.7% in their twenties, 30.8% in their thirties, 21.9% in their forties, 9.0% in their fifties, and 7.0% 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.

When I was single, I don’t think I ever got a mad desire to rush out and pair off with anyone, it was more just frustration then acceptance of my situation.
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Looking at the alphabet soup of new models for this autumn and winter from docomo and SoftBank, one could be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed, with about 20 new handset each. Seeing how widespread this feeling was was one of the questions asked in the 49th regular upgrade needs survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 20th of November 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone using members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 1.3% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 27.7% in their forties, and 23.4% aged fifty or older.

I’m overwhelmed by the number, especially as they all have roughly the same price and feature overload. If there was an entry-level phone with no One Seg television, a low-end camera, and no touch screen, flashing lights and other gimmics, I’m sure it could sell.

I’ve also got no intention to buy this season, partially as I’m waiting to see how well the Japanese manufacturers tackle making Android phones for the domestic market, and partially because I spent my toy budget on a netbook.
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In Japan, there’s always some brand or other of soft drink in particular that has a free collectable gift attached to it, such as figurines, mobile phone straps, or even once plant seeds! These food items collectable gifts were the focus of a recent survey from iShare. Oh, a long time ago I did a similar DIMSDRIVE survey.

Demographics

Between the 30th of October and the 5ht of November 2009 537 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.5% of the sample were male, 35.8% in their twenties, 30.5% in their thirties, and 33.7% in their forties.

The last nice collectable set I got was Snoopy lying on various delicacies from around the country, given away free with Pepsi. I’ve never gone out of my way to collect such items, but they do influence my wife’s buying habits to some degree.

A friend of mine once bought a whole case of collectable cards that came with a tiny sweet, so it looked more to me like buying a card that came with a free ebidle item, not the other way round!
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Following on from docomo’s autumn and winter line-up, today we look at SoftBank’s new models, the subject of this survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 23rd of November 2009 300 members of the Marsh mobile monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 0.7% in their teens, 19.3% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

Looking at this and the previous docomo survey (I’ll skip the au one if that turns up!) you might be left thinking that that’s an awful lot of new phones! Well, you wouldn’t be the only one, as today another survey was published (I’ll be translating it either tomorrow or Monday) asking that very question.

Looking at the models available, I’m most interested in the one pictured here, the Sharp 942SH KT…
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Docomo have recently announced their new line up for autumn and winter. There are almost no new phones; most of them are just refreshes of existing products with maybe a higher-end camera here and a few extra lighting effects there. One new one is the SC-01B, which seems to be just a Japanese-targetted tweak of Samsung’s Omnia Pro B7330 with a touch panel, but the B code seems to be trying to suggest to the customer that it’s an upgraded BlackBerry Bold. Anyway, these NTT docomo new models were the subject of this survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 15th of November 2009 300 members of the Marsh mobile monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

The Photopanel 02 is a new one on me, but as the name suggests it is a digital photo frame. There was also a 01, but I’ve never seen that anywhere!

Looking at the old and new phones last weekend I feel docomo’s range is getting too confused. Looking at Panasonic, for instance (most of the Japanese manufacturers suffer from this), they have two basic clamshell designs (there’s also a third slider phone), but mix and match features, so you can have a touch-pad keyboard and two-way opening, but a low-end camera. Go for a higher mega-pixel count and you lose two-way opening and the inward camera, but get more emoji and a cartoon character theme. They all have basically the same price so it’s really an exercise in frustration trying to decide which to compromise on.

Oh, and the older models haven’t had any noticable price reduction even though they’ve been superceded.
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