世論 What Japan Thinks

Almost all phones in Japan these days can download applications in one form or another, so this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at the use of mobile applications.

Demographics

Between the 28th and 31st of October 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

The original Japanese article headlined the story with “Over half of iPhone users use applications daily”, but there was only 36 owners, or 3.7%, in the sample, so the main focus will be on the standard Japanese Java-based world.

In Q3, don’t ask me what the difference between a simulator and a simulation is!
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Recently, goo Research conducted their second regular keitai novel (mobile phone novel) survey, which was reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 29th of October 2009 1,073 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.8% in their teens, 21.3% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

Note that here a keitai novel (“keitai” is short for “keitai denwa”, “portable phone”) is a novel written especially for mobile phones, and often written itself on a mobile phone, rather than just the electronic version of a paper novel consumed on a mobile phone. Hopefully those answering the questions here were fully aware of that distinction!

It would be interesting to see what percentage of people had read the same book in both formats, and the number of books in each format.
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Today’s bit of fun from goo Ranking looks at the moment you realise someone you’ve got your eye on is not girlfriend or boyfriend material, for both men looking at women and women looking at men.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 24th of September 2009 1,156 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 63.8% of the sample were female, 10.1% in their teens, 20.8% in their twenties, 30.0% in their thirties, 23.4% in their forties, 9.3% in their fifties, and 6.4% 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 does seem like a rather unusual demographic spread for goo Research.
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People sleeping on the train, or feigning sleep so they don’t need to give up their seat, is a staple feature of the Japanese rail system, and something that I do most mornings too. The worry about sleeping past your stop was the subject tackled by this recent survey from iShare.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 15th of October 2009 568 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.1% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, and 34.2% in their forties.

Despite needing three trains to get to and from work every day, I’ve never actually slept past my stop, although more than once or twice I’ve woken up after the train has stopped and had to fight my way through the boarding hoards to get off. My first train in the morning is all the way to the end of the line, so I have once been woken by a fellow passenger as I was still dead to the world when we got to the terminal.
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Having looked earlier in the week at how people use their PCs in the morning, this time we look with RealWorld RealResearch and japan.internet.com at web site viewing habits at home.

Demographics

Over the 27th and 28th of October 2009 1,012 members of the RealWorld RealResearch monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 64.0% of the sample were male, 6.0% in their teens, 9.5% in their twenties, 10.3% in their thirties, 40.9% in their forties, 18.5% in their fifties, and 14.8% aged sixty or older. That does seem a bit of curiously top-heavy demographic.

When I start up my PC the first thing I do is launch my mail clients (yes, I run two clients to keep my blogging world separate from my family) and my browser, hit the mail check buttons then minimise the mail clients, so end up viewing the browser first, which starts up with the Opera speed dial page, technically, I suppose, a blank page.

I don’t bookmark many sites, but my wife has hundreds of the things which slow down Internet Explorer something rotten, taking over 10 seconds to open a page. I should teach her about sub-folders for bookmarks, but I really haven’t got the energy.
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This subject is one that seems to polarises opinions in Japanese media, with those opposed arguing along the lines of having the law in place to allow separate names will mean everyone will use it, leading to a collapse of the whole of Japanese society. However, this recent survey into separate names of husbands and wives found most in favour, but very few planning to take advantage of it.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 16th of October 2009 498 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.6% of the sample were male, 36.7% in their twenties, 30.1% in their thirties, and 33.1% in their forties.

Separate names is by default a fact for international marriages, due to the family register system in Japan – a Japanese-only couple have one family register document for the two of them, so as the document only supports a single surname, couples must have the same official name. However, foreign residents have a separate registration system, so we and our spouses can keep our surnames, although there is a six-month window where one can easily make the change. My wife didn’t change (no particular reason, just too much hassle, I support), but when she renewed her passport she got given a double-barrel with my surname in brackets after hers.
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Here’s an interesting look at socialising and friends from MyVoice.

Demographics

Over the first five days of October 2009 13,534 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 13% in their twenties, 32% in their thirties, 31% in their forties, and 22% aged fifty or older.

Even though the sample used was from the MyVoice internet community, in Q2 you can see that only 8.3% form friendships through the internet. Despite, or perhaps because, being an anti-social git myself, I have made a good number of acquaintances through my blogging, and dare I say it even a friend or two, as I have done through my trusted computing conference attendance.

Two years ago I translated another survey on inter-personal relationships.
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I was going to make this a detailed post tonight, but Mari at Watashi to Tokyo beat me to it with the list of top 10 hit items of 2009.

I’ve had a bit of a cold (not influenza!) this weekend, which is why I went silent for three days, and I’ll skip a fuller post today too.

Here’s an interesting little survey from iBridge Research Plus as reported on by japan.internet.com into the internet and habits.

Demographics

On the 26th of October 2009 exactly 300 members of the iBridge monitor group who were either in employment or students completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 76.0% of the sample were male, 9.0% were in their twenties, 31.7% in their thirties, 38.0% in their forties, 17.0% in their fifties, and 4.3% in their sixties.

I don’t switch on my home PC before leaving for work as (a) I don’t have time, and (b) if I did, I’d keep fiddling with it and be even later. However, just last week I have started enacting my latest cunning plan that may (or may not) see me firing up a PC on the train to work.

Oh, and today I was pleased to see that this doctor has an open wireless point in his office, although I don’t know if he is actually aware he is providing it…
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I’ve defintely noticed since the iPhone 3GS was released in Japan the number of handsets I’m seeing has definitely increased, but what are people doing with them? This recent survey from Point On Research, as reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at this in a survey entitled iPhone apps.

Demographics

On the 27th of October 2009 800 mobile phone users completed a mobile phone based survey. 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 the below is just the highlights of the survey; the full set of results will be available at a price.

I’m in the US right now, and the iPhone is quite stunningly popular! I suspect the visibility of the device is affected by people fiddling with their iPhone more than people fiddle with other more boring devices, or people are more addicted, or are just showing off. In addition, a French guy took me along to Fry’s yesterday and he picked up an iPod Touch for about 100 euro less than he’d have to pay at home.
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