世論 What Japan Thinks

I get a lot of people searching for Japanese emoticons on this blog (well, I used to until my previous hosting blew up and I got relegated to page two), and although there are a few collections of Japanese smilies out there, they are very poorly presented, just a number of pages with tens or hundreds of lines to wade though.

So, I got thinking and got working and produced evoticon.net. If you like it, please submit it to any social media sites you may use.

It will soon be Valentine’s Day, so to get into the mood I present a short ranking survey from goo Ranking on failures commited on Valentine’s Day.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 22nd of December 2008 1,039 members of the goo Research monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The reported sex split was exactly 50.00% male and 50.00% female, a figure that one will instantly see is wrong, so for the sake of argument I’ll round it up to 520 females and down to 519 males. 7.6% of the sample were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 28.0% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 10.3% 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. Note also this question was for women only, as the day is only for women to give stuff to men.
　
Note that there are two main types of chocolates to be passed – true love chocolates and obligatory chocolates. The latter mostly goes to workmates. More details can be found in a recently-translated serious survey from Macromill into Valentine’s day.
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I’ve looked a number of times at YouTube and Nico Nico Douga, but this survey from MyVoice is a little different, looking at movie delivery (and streaming) services that focus more on commercial content.

Demographics

Over the first five days of January 2009 14,034 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

I don’t think I’ve ever actually used a commercial movie streaming or delivery service myself, and I can’t really see myself paying for it. I get Star Channel on cable, so I suppose if they offered a similar service for download direct to my DVD recorder, I perhaps could pay a monthly fee. AcTVila offers that sort of service through one’s television and Blu-ray recorder, but as can be seen here the take-up is quite low, but then again it is a new service.

Note that although I refer to movies in the translation below, the services also cover re-runs of television shows, etc.
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It’s coming up to that time of the year in Japan where the women may express their love and have to express their gratitute, so Macromill Inc looked at women and Valentine’s Day.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of January 2009 515 female members of the Macromill monitor group aged between twenty and thirty-nine completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54 were aged between 20 and 24, 155 between 25 and 29, 174 between 30 and 34, and 132 between 35 and 39.

In Japan there are two different types of chocolate that women must buy for Valentine’s Day. The first kind is “true” (本命, honmei) chocolates, the other “obligatory” (義理, giri); the first goes to your true love (or object of infatuation, etc), the second male colleagues at work. As you may guess, the amount of effort and expense gone to for each type varies greatly!

Note that “traditionally” it is the women who give men presents on Valentine’s Day, and they hope for something in return on White Day, the 14th of March. However, from this year some of the chocolate makers have been promoting 逆チョコ, gyaku choko, reverse chocolates, which come in a mirror imaged box.

Two years ago I translated a similar Macromill Valentine survey that you may want to cross-reference.
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As I’ve just recently had a request from work to complete some online training, this recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into e-learning is quite timely for me.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of January 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 20.0% 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.

The training I’ve been asked to complete is some stuff on copyright and intellectual property, all in Japanese of course, in some sort of Flash-based presentation that I’ve not tried yet. I once did a similar course with quite nice software that came with full text of all the script, so I could easily cut-and-paste words I didn’t understand into a dictionary. However, the course was ridiculously easy; it just seemed like a way to force you to sit through 10 or 15 hours of lectures, with the implication, of course, that you do it all on your own time, not at work.
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Well, given the sample internet population that replied to this questionnaire that headline is true, as revealed by a recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet auctions.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of January 2009 1,027 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve never participated in an internet auction, as the worry about getting ripped-off outweighs any financial benefit that I feel I would gain from using it.

If you want to take part in a Japanese auction but live overseas, one easy way is through a Japan-based representative, with Rinku being one well-known example.
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A recent survey from iShare on a favourite topic of mine, Japanese aversion for dentists, took a slightly different and rather interesting look at the oft-covered matter of Japanese teeth.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 17th of January 2009 468 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private online questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 11.3% in their twenties, 53.2% in their thirties, 26.3% in their forties, 6.4% in their fifties, and 2.8% either in their teens or aged sixty or older.

I actually need to go to the dentist (it’s 9 months since my last cleaning) but… I don’t really like phones in English, so Japanese is twice as bad! The dentist himself I can most strongly recommend, and his prices are quite reasonable, especially compared to the ham-fisted thief that my wife visits.
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Widgets are now even finding their way onto mobile phones (now that would be an interesting survey!), but this survey from RealWorld RealResearch and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at widgets (or gadgets) on computer desktops.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of January 2009 1,020 members of the RealResearch monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.6% of the sample were male, 7.3% in their teens, 27.4% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, 25.4% in their forties, 7.5% in their fifties, and 1.6% aged sixty or older.

I looked a while ago at widgets according to MyVoice, which might be a useful cross-reference for this survey.

I don’t use widgets as they clutter up the desktop; I keep all my add-ons under control in toolbars. Perhaps if I invested in a wide-screen monitor I could afford to reserve some space, but then again I cannot think of any widgets I actually want to use! However, at work around half my colleagues run a desktop calendar widget, however as far as I can determine it doesn’t feature (or nobody uses) any schedule reminder functions.

In Q2, you’ll note it interesting that an RSS reading widget did not appear explicitly on the list. Although RSS is not that popular in Japan, I would have thought it merited its own category rather than, perhaps, being lumped into the “site or service latest information” category. I’d also have thought music players would be more popular.
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Hair preening in the subway is a combination of actions from the list below that most irritates me, this list being from goo Ranking looking at what actions make one think you might be a narcissist, for both women and men.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 22nd of December 2008 1,039 members of the goo Research monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The reported sex split was exactly 50.00% male and 50.00% female, a figure that one will instantly see is wrong, so for the sake of argument I’ll round it up to 520 females and down to 519 males. 7.6% of the sample were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 28.0% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 10.3% 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 don’t think I suffer from any of the flaws noted below, as I cannot be a narcissist as it is impossible to improve on perfection.

On the other hand, I think my wife scores more than 50%…
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Sadly the most important question, “Do you think Feng Shui is a load of cobblers?” was not asked, although given the love of blood typing, this recent survey from iShare into Feng Shui would probably have shown a disappointingly high percentage of believers.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 10th of January 2009 412 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private online questionnaire. 55.1% of the sample were male, 13.3% in their twenties, 46.8% in their thirties, 32.3% in their forties, and 7.5% either in their teens or aged fifty or older.

In Japanese Feng Shui is written using the same wind and water characters as for Chinese, but the pronounciation is slightly different, Fuu Sui. The biggest Feng Shui con artist practitioner in Japan is Doctor Copa, whose advise mostly seems to consist of sticking ugly single-colour plastic objects in strategic locations.
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