世論 What Japan Thinks

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include "/home/whatjapa/public_html/libchart/libchart.php";

$chart = new PieChart(400, 200);

$chart->setTitle(“Might you like to buy Apple’s iPhone?”);
$chart->addPoint(new Point(“Yes”, 51.7));
$chart->addPoint(new Point(“No”, 19.3));
$chart->addPoint(new Point(“Don’t know”, 29.0));

$chart->render(“/home/whatjapa/public_html/image08/buy-iphone-jan.png”);
?>

Two days, two mentions of Apple’s iPhone! This time, however, rather than trying to shoehorn it into an existing survey, japan.internet.com reported on a survey by conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into Apple’s iPhone.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 11th of January 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in either the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 80.0% of the sample was male, 10.9% in their twenties, 36.4% in their thirties, 36.1% in their forties, 13.9% in their fifties, and 2.7% in their sixties.

This is also well-timed with regards a report on Forbes about the iPhone (thanks Gen!) which takes the rather safe line that the latest NTT DoCoMo 905i series does everything and more already, and that the price tag is rather prohibitive. Looking at Q1SQ2 below, it seems that almost no-one is willing to pay the price it was initially offered at in the USA, but well over a quarter of the potential customers are willing to pay around the current market value. This also ignores the fact that the previously-mentioned 905i series is selling, and selling well, at over 50,000 yen on a standard pricing plan, and of course the up-front cost is just a fraction of the total cost of ownership. To compare, in the USA the cheapest unlimited data plan costs $59.99 with 450 free minutes, 5,000 evening and weekend minutes, and 45 cents per minute after that, whereas in Japan the cheapest 905i plan is 2,000 yen (excluding tax) for 25 free minutes (300 free minutes would be 8,000 yen!), 400 yen for answering machine and call waiting service, 200 yen for iMode walled-garden functionality, 5,700 yen pake-houdai full unlimited data packet plan for full browser, and then 40 yen per minute afterwards. This makes a USA iPhone cost around $1,839 for two years including $399 for the handset, or about 200,000 yen, versus a minimum 249,200 yen for a 905i series phone including the 50,000 yen handset cost, not forgetting that a Japanese tend to upgrade more frequently than once every two years, making a basic 905i about 25% more expensive than an iPhone. If one compares the package with a similar amount of minutes, the price becomes 393,200 yen, almost double the price! To be generous to NTT DoCoMo, after a year you may become eligible for a 35% discount, rising to 50% after 10 years, so a worst-case scenario is closer to 333,140 yen, only 66% more expensive, and a best-case of 221,600 yen, still 10% more expensive than an iPhone. Similar costs apply to the other main carriers, SoftBank and au.

If you want to read more on the iPhone in Japan, please view my article on why Apple’s iPhone will succeed in Japan, or catch up on all past articles on the iPhone.
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With the recent news that KDDI was tops for net new customers in 2007, it is instructive to look at a recent report on japan.internet.com regarding the 35th regular mobile phone upgrade needs survey conducted by goo Research once a month, every month since April 2004.

Demographics

Over the 20th and 21st of December 2007 exactly 1,000 members of the goo Research monitor group who carried a mobile phone (the reported text says just internet users, but everyone in the survey carried a mobile phone, so the sample must have been pre-screened for mobile phone ownership) completed a private online questionnaire. 50.8% of the sample was male, 1.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 37.4% in their thirties, 28.8% in their forties, and 16.8% aged fifty or older.

With the hype for Apple’s iPhone release in Japan beginning to build up, it is interesting to note that from the list of desired features in Q2, the following are not present on the US or Europe models of that device: external memory card, one seg digital terrestrial or analogue television, infra-red, FeliCa (Osaifu Keitai, electronic wallet), water resistance, GPS, FM, AM or digital radio, document viewer, skinning, and an electronic compass. Present are merely music playback, full browser, Bluetooth, and wireless LAN. Of course, one can argue that the questions were biased towards Japanese phones, but Apple will have to face the same issue of customer bias when they try to sell the iPhone in Japan. However, in Q4 people seem to hold the screen display as key, an area where the iPhone is strong.
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With Coming of Age ceremonies being held mainly on the 14th of January this year, it is timely to look at a recent survey of these soon-to-be adults conducted by MacroMill Inc on the topic of new adults, specifically how they see their future.

Demographics

Over the 20th and 21st of December 2007 516 members of the Macromill monitors who will be attending a Coming of Age ceremony in 2008 completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and of course all were either 19 or 20 years old.

Freeterism seems accetable in certain circumstances to a majority of people in Q7, which was a surprise to me. Freeter is the Japanese word mashed-up from freelance and arbeiter, which is from Arbeit, the German for part time work. It basically means casual labour, flitting between jobs as frequently as from day-to-day; working for a bit, taking time off for a bit.

In Q9, with just a slender majority happy to be able to drink might indicate a significant group of under-age drinkers, and as for smoking, I think it is safe to say that there must be a lot of kids who are already nicotine addicts!
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With Coming of Age ceremonies being held mainly on the 14th of January this year, it is timely to look at a recent survey of these soon-to-be adults conducted by MacroMill Inc on the topic of new adults, specifically how they see their future.

Demographics

Over the 20th and 21st of December 2007 516 members of the Macromill monitors who will be attending a Coming of Age ceremony in 2008 completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and of course all were either 19 or 20 years old.

One thing that always puzzles and suprises a lot of foreigners about Coming of Age is that ceremonies are held in Disneyland, and many people target getting a photo taken with Mickey Mouse. One would think that becoming an adult would mean throwing away the trappings of youth, and one gets the feeling that they are not saying goodbye to Mickey et al, but see you later; now as wage earners, they can visit the mouse at home under their own steam.

Although many seem to be quite positive regarding their own future, the number seeing Japan in a positive light in Q3 is depressing, and that is an issue I’d love to see explored further some time. I wonder how much is due to pensions, given Q5, but since there seems a high degree of interest in politics and elections in Q6, do these new adults view it as something they cannot change?
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Sillyness will be a day early this week, due to a more appropriate post due on Sunday and Monday! Here’s a great ranking survey from goo Ranking, one arm of the best online polling organisation in Japan, on what appearance makes a man appear like an otaku, and what makes a woman look like a otaku.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of November 2007 1,101 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample was female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 10.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score reported is the relative number of votes each choice got, not the percentage of the sample that chose each option.

Particularly for the male answers, otaku has strong connotations of being an anime or manga freak, rather than the slightly more generic use of someone who’s heavily into any hobby, judging by the answers below!
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Here’s a quicky on New Year resolutions, in particular on what qualifications Japanese would like to try to get in 2008. This survey was presented by goo Ranking.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of November 2007 1,101 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample was female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 10.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score reported is the relative number of votes each choice got, not the percentage of the sample that chose each option.

I too want to do the second choice, the Kanji Kentei! It’s surprisingly fun to study, and a good excuse to buy a Nintendo DS to help with your study. Sadly, none of the tests that I featured in an earlier article made the cut! Also note that the word kentei, 検定, is the Japanese for examination, but it also has implications of being an exam with various grades. Regarding getting English qualifications, Let’s Japan had an interesting article on the chain school market.
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That is commenting on blogs, of course, although the same is also true for what I think you were thinking of! This was one of the results published on japan.internet.com in a summary of a survey by Cross Marketing Inc into writing stuff on the internet.

Demographics

Over the 26th and 27th of December 2007 300 members of the Cross Marketing monitor pool successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. the sample was 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

One of my resolutions for the year is to network more, and although currently I write on bulletin boards just about every day, my rate of commenting on blogs is about once every two or three days. I suppose I should really set myself numeric targets such as 30 comments a month and keep track of how I’m doing.
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This is breaking news, but Matsushita have just announced that they are doing to get rid of their 80 years of history and change the company name to Panasonic to reflect their main brand name. The National brand, used in Japan mostly for white goods like refrigerators and vacuum cleaners, will also disappear, it seems.

The founder, Konosuke Matsushita, was found to be the greatest company founder or proprietor according to a survey carried out two years ago amongst Japanese of all ages.

No news in English to date according to Google, but there is coverage in Japanese.

Although the 福袋, Fukubukuro – New Year Lucky Bag sale – season is almost over, surveys on this matter are still a little behind the times; such as this one reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research into fukubukuro.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 25th of December 2007 1,186 members of goo Research’s online monitor panel successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample was male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

If you want to try a Fukubukuro for yourself, there are still (I hope!) a few Hello Kitty phone strap bags left. Get them now or regret it forever.

Although I did say earlier that I planned to buy a Mister Donut Fukubukuro, the first day I wanted to buy we ended up eating in Mister Donut instead, and the second day the shop we went to had finished their sales for the year when we arrived. To top it all, my Misdo point card also expired so we missed out on a Pon De Lion cuddly toy.

Finally, Shari, I am still looking out for a survey on Fukubukuro satisfaction levels!
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Just in case you bought or were given tickets for the Japan End of Year Lottery and want to find out if you have won or not, here are the results. I haven’t seen them reported anywhere else in English, so I thought I’d post here. First, look at a sample ticket.

The two highlighted numbers are the ones of interest. The top two-digit number is the 組, gumi, or ticket group that this ticket belongs to. This one is 57 gumi. The second number is the serial number, in this case #134963.

By the way, if you are looking for the winners of the Year of the Rat New Year Postcard Nengajo lottery, the results were published on the 27th of January. That one’s got a nice booby prize of two rat-themed stamps!

Now to the winners:

Top prize: 83 gumi, #136917: 200,000,000 yen

Close but no cigar prize 1: 83 gumi, #136916 or #136918: 50,000,000 yen
Close but no cigar prize 2: 82 or 84 gumi, #136917: 100,000 yen

Second prize: 03 gumi, #187951: 100,000,000 yen
Second prize: 65 gumi, #119970: 100,000,000 yen
Second prize: 31 gumi, #100682: 100,000,000 yen

Third prize: 01 gumi, #152735: 10,000,000 yen
Third prize: 90 gumi, #100823: 10,000,000 yen
Third prize: 31 gumi, #145940: 10,000,000 yen

Fourth prize: second digit of gumi equals 1, #194938: 1,000,000 yen
Fourth prize: second digit of gumi equals 0, #149856: 1,000,000 yen

Fifth prize: any gumi, #158207: 100,000 yen
Fifth prize: any gumi, #158830: 100,000 yen
Fifth prize: any gumi, #190624: 100,000 yen

Sixth prize: any gumi, last four digits of serial number equal #0258: 30,000 yen

Seventh prize: any gumi, last two digits of serial number equal #78: 3000 yen

Eighth prize: any gumi, last digit of serial number equals #3: 300 yen

End of Year Lucky Prize: any gumi, last three digits of serial number equal #960: 10,000 yen

You have one calendar year from the 7th of January 2008 in which to claim your prize.