世論 What Japan Thinks

For some reason I have acquired about 150 followers on Twitter, so to try to serve them better and to add a new feature to What Japan Thinks, I will be making occasional Tweets of data from surveys that I choose not to translate in full, and from other sources like TV and newspapers. Also, I might post tips and links, but I’ll try to avoid joining in with the banality on all sides.

If you can’t see what all the fuss is about Twitter, don’t worry as I’m using Twitter Tools, which should summarise all my Tweets once a week and auto-post to this blog.

Most university graduates start work in Japan on or around the first of April, so this survey from Macromill Inc interviewed the fresh faces who had been at their companies for just over a month to learn about then new members of society’s opinions.

Demographics

On the 12th and 13th of May 2009 516 members of the Macromill monitor group who were born in 1986 or 1987 and had found a job completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female.

Wow, there’s a lot of very good information in this survey, and I could easily spend the next day or two drawing conclusions! Note in Q3SQ2 the points of dissatisfaction for women, suggesting that even after just a month in the job, gender discrimination is already obvious to them. On the other hand, in Q5 one in eight women plan to quit when they get married, and then another quarter after they have a baby.

In Q7, I hate drinking sessions at work and would probably choose all the reasons listed, except that it’s talking shop all the time that irritates me, not not talking shop as asked!
Read the rest of this entry »

This is one of these surveys that might be interesting to see in its entirity, as the taster provided by japan.internet.com of a survey by Marsh Inc into web site viewing habits provided information that without context is difficult to interpret.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 8th of May 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 0.7% were 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.

My wife has about three million bookmarks which make the lethargic at the best of times Internet Explorer really crawl whenever she opens up a new window. I keep my bookmarks reasonably-well categorised into folders, but then again there’s only about a dozen or so sites I regularly visit via bookmarks.
Read the rest of this entry »

Looking around the web, about a year ago there was an earlier version of the Buddha Phone released, but now it’s been powered up to be a portable shrine ready to accept your prayers 24 hours a day. At first sight the phone is rather unspectacular:

You might notice the lotus symbol at the top right of the keyboard, the first hint that things may not quite be what they seem.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sure most of us who have worked in Japan have experienced a colleague sleeping during meetings, so to try to put some concrete numbers on the phenomenon iShare conducted a survey into sleeping at work.

Demographics

Between the 28th of April and the 7th of May 2009 405 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private mobile-phone internet-based questionnaire. 54.3% of the sample were male, 32.3% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, and 35.1% in their forties.

Power-napping, catching 15 minutes of forty winks during lunch break, does have definite benefits, and indeed napping salons have started popping up recently, although I do suspect that due to the short night-time sleep hours the Japanese power-nap is more of a necessity than a lifestyle choice.

I don’t power-nap as I use lunch as an opportunity to prepare articles for WJT, but I keep thinking I should. However, my desk is not sleep-friendly and we don’t have any relaxation space in the office.
Read the rest of this entry »

For the second dose of sillyness for tonight, once again we have goo Ranking, this time looking at tactics people employ in love, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of April 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.4% of the sample were female, 9.2% were in their teens, 13.7% in their twenties, 27.5% in their thirties, 27.5% in their forties, 11.7% in their fifties, and 10.4% aged sixty or older.

I must say, looking at a lot of the tactics here, if you try them out you’ll probably soon be hearing one of these lines, I suspect!

Looking at the women’s list, for number 24 I’d be more surprised to actually hear an apology…
Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s first dose of sillyness from goo Ranking is a look at the best lines for telling someone a relationship is finished, for both men telling women and women telling men.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of April 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.4% of the sample were female, 9.2% were in their teens, 13.7% in their twenties, 27.5% in their thirties, 27.5% in their forties, 11.7% in their fifties, and 10.4% aged sixty or older.

Here’s a photo from gniv on flickr with a line that surprisingly doesn’t feature in the lists below.

Recently, DIMSDRIVE Research took a look at the matter of moving house.

Demographics

Between the 25th of February and the 12th of March 2009 10,789 members of the DIMSDRIVE Monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 50.5% of the sample were female, 0.8% in their teens, 13.3% in their twenties, 33.6% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 15.2% in their fifties, and 6.4% aged sixty or older.

I’ve got a lot of tales about removals in Japan! The last time I was involved in one was when my parents-in-law moved; my wife organised lots of quotes through the internet, but her father accepted the first one he got, as they gave him a free kilo of rice, even though the company has a less than stellar reputation.

On the day of the removals they brought only two, not three staff to do the packing, the pick-up was delayed, so instead of arriving at the new place at 4pm as promised, it was 10pm, so tradesmen we’d asked to come in to fit the air conditioners, etc, had to go home and come back the next day. To cap it all off, there was some sort of get-out clause in the contract so we couldn’t claim any compensation off them.
Read the rest of this entry »

This month’s subject for the Japan Blog Matsuri is My Favourite Place in Japan, so here goes with my entry.

My favourite place in Japan is the theatre, and you can find me there about once a month, most often at Takarazuka. However, over the Golden Week holidays at the start of May I managed to experience the other side of the footlights. The less than four years old Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Nishinomiya, Hyogo decided to hold their very first public backstage tour for a hundred or so lucky applicants. Lets let the photos do the talking:

Me on stage!
Read the rest of this entry »

A recent survey conducted by RealWorld RealResearch (I love that name!) and reported on by japan.internet.com into piracy revealed some very curious results on what pirate booty people parted with money for.

Demographics

Over the 12th and 13th of May 2009 1,015 members of the RealWorld RealResearch monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were male, 3.8% in their teens, 10.7% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.9% in their forties, 22.3% in their fifties, and 24.7% aged sixty or older. (That’s a bit of an unusual age profile!)

In case you’re wondering, the Japanese for pirate and piracy is, as in English, also the term for sea-based robbers.

Many years ago back in Scotland I used very regularly buy pirate stuff at the Barras in Glasgow, back when the internet meant Prestel and a 12/75 modem, so hopping on my bike for a thrash up to Glasgow at the weekends for a visit to the friendly dealers was always a pleasant way to pass the time.
Read the rest of this entry »