世論 What Japan Thinks

As promised, and in the spirit of Xmas/Hanukkah/Festivus/we-respect-Jesus-in-a-Buddhist-sort-of-way, here are reviews of the blogs that didn’t make the cut for the First Annual (perhaps) Japan Blog of the Year Awards, roughly in the order that they were nominated. Reviews of the candidates will take place after voting finishes. Please remember to vote, and remember that all commenters on that thread will be eligible for a drawing for a small prize!

Neojaponisme: Reading this blog makes my brain hurt, but in a good way. I also suspect that there is some great underlying in-joke behind the site, but I just can’t quite see it. However, there’s one great article on the front page about concrete facades that you see everywhere in Japan, and which I dislike intensely, so it was interesting to learn how they came to be and how they are seen.

Japankino: It’s in German and it’s about Japanese film. Sadly, that’s as much as I can tell you about it!

News.3Yen.com: I love Taro’s use of Photoshop on the stories, and I did think that the whale hats were an example of that, but it does seem to be real! A quirky look at the lighter side of Japan. This blog always seems to be under the radar for some reason, and I feel it should be more popular than it appears to be. Maybe it’s just that I don’t see it popping up in the Google searches that I do?

Once Upon A Tokyo: A personal blog of an English teacher working in a Tokyo school, mostly featuring stories on strange or fun items found in Japan.

The internet, the information super-highway, is supposed to be this great conduit of information by which everyone can gather information on whatever they please. To find out how the Japanese are plugging into these vast resources, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into using the internet to garner information.

Demographics

On the 27th of November 2007 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in the public or private sector completed a private online questionnaire. 78.2% of the sample was male, 9.7% in their twenties, 37.5% in their thirties, 36.0% in their forties, 12.1% in their fifties, and 4.8% in their sixties.

It is not clear from the survey whether just computer-based internet access was counted, or if mobile phone usage was included.

Quite frankly, this survey seems fatally flawed as Q1 does not include Wikipedia (which is itself fatally flawed) as I must admit that for simple factual data I do reference it, and given that is seems to often appear in four in five of Japanese surfers’ search results, to not include it would be an oversight.

If you too want to gather information on train times, NihonHacks recently had an article on how to do it.
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According to a poll recently conducted on behalf of the national broadcaster, when asked if without immigration would the nation’s economy suffer, almost half (49%) of the people of this island nation bravely trying to hold out against the inevitable forces of globalisation thought that it would not suffer without an influx of foreigners, versus 46% who thought it would suffer.

When asked if all these incomers would affect the unique identity of the nation, 62% agreed whereas only 35% disagreed; almost twice as many think assimilation is not possible, perhaps indicating some longing for past glories where it was their unique culture that was imposed on other countries.

In other news, 65% of Japanese wants to see more immigration, even at the unskilled level, to address labour shortages. The backward, xenophobic, racist nation described in the first two paragraphs is actually the UK.

Note that of course the Japanese and UK situations are in no way comparable, and there are other surveys that indicate, for instance, that 55% of the Japanese public blame a decline in public order in foreign crime, versus 36% in the UK, but it does show that nihonjinron is not a uniquely Japanese disease, and that Japanese public opinion is perhaps not such an outlier when compared to other nations. Having said that, Japan is an outlier when it comes to media and state reaction to racism and allegations of such, although I do not paint as black a picture as others.

Sources: UK survey from the BBC (pdf); Japan survey from the Mainichi via Japan Probe.

Here’s another interesting survey that gives lots of little insights into how the average Japanese person uses the internet. Here japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into web service usage in 2007.

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th of December 2007 300 members of the Cross Marketing online monitor panel successfully completed an internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample was male, 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.

The survey did not make it clear as to whether access from both computer and mobile phone was counted. I’m surprised that web mail did not feature in the list of services enquired about. However, every time it pops up I’m surprised by the very high number of internet banking users, with just under half the sample here regularly banking on the internet.

For me, I don’t think there’s anything in particular that I’ve given up this year or imagine I will next year. How about you?
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VOTING IS NOW COMPLETE! Update: 25th December. Thank you everyone, and I’ll be contacting the winners individually and posting reviews all the candidates. Thanks again for all the votes, and I hope you all enjoyed the friendly competition, and you’ve all found a new blog or three to read.

I’ve totted up the nominations from both the comments sections and email, and after a complex process involving lots of beer and a dartboard, I’ve come up with the following nominations for each category. Winners in each category will be awarded some yet to be decided goods with the upcoming new What Japan Thinks logo on them, once I get round to setting up a Cafe Press shop. If anyone wishes to donate any more stash in return for some publicity, please get in touch!

To encourage you all to vote, I’ll also be giving away similar logoed gifts to randomly-selected posters, so post your thoughts on the candidates, or on who you think should be there, and I’ll select one (or perhaps more) commenter at random and contact them via their email address. Voting will be open until midnight on Christmas Eve (or so) and the winners announced on Christmas Day, assuming I don’t stuff myself too silly on turkey-effect tofu steaks…

Thanks to everyone who nominated, and there’s a few blogs new to me here and in the nominations that I’ll write short reviews of this week.

With the New Year soon to be upon us, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into year end and new year holidays.

Demographics

On the 5th of December 2007 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in the public or private sector successfully completed an online questionnaire. 81.3% of the sample was male, 8.2% in their twenties, 37.2% in their thirties, 40.2% in their forties, 11.8% in their fifties, and 2.7% in their sixties.

My plans are sleeping, some housework, visiting the parents-in-law, and going to the cinema; we have tickets for Cha-cha. I think we also have a musical fitted into the schedule somewhere that might or might not be Rent. I have 10 days continuous holidays, from Friday the28th to Sunday the 6th inclusive.
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Thanks for all your nominations by mail and in the comments for the previous post! This evening I’ll tot up the nominations and come up with the top five in each category:

Best serious blog on Japan
Best humourous (or look at the lighter side) blog on Japan
Best culture blog on Japan
Best technology blog on Japan
Best personal blog on Japan

So, if you haven’t nominated yet, please do so soon. Note that I will be offering prizes to the winners of each category.

Vending machines in Japan serve many purposes in Japan; not just the obvious machine-based vending of items, but also some collect money for charity, others provide free drinks in the event of an earthquake, and even help you escape from crime! To get back to the primary business of selling, goo Ranking asked its monitor panel to name what things they’d most like to try once if there was such a vending machine close at hand. This survey was conducted over the 24th and 25th of October 2007.

I couldn’t really believe the toast option, but it does exist!

For those of you with Flash disabled, the url is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFUD24m9pA
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Despite numerous government announcements regarding Linux initiatives, little real progress is being made, with the official English web pages describing the project in fact looking rather dead. In order to find out what is actually happening in government offices, japan.internet.com published the results of a survey by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into introducing Open Source Software (OSS) in the public sector.

Demographics

On the 4th of December 2007 330 people from the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employen in the public sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.0% of the sample was male, 3.9% were in their twenties, 42.7% in their thirties, 43.9% in their forties, 7.9% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

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With the Sharp AQUOS keitai outselling all others, is it the television that is boosting the cell phone or the cell phone boosting the television? This is a question that intrigues me, but unfortunately that question has little to do with today’s translation of a survey by MyVoice into flat screen televisions.

Demographics

Over the first five days of November 2007 19,700 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 16% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 28% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

Carrying on that thought about brand symbiosis between mobile phones and televisions, Panasonic finally launched its Viera brand mobile phone, the P905i, which according to reports I’ve heard is the top-seller, and in fact is selling faster than they can build them, from the new DoCoMo range of phones, despite being a wallet-busting 52,000 yen, which when converted to dollars is more than an iPhone, and when you then add in that an unlimited packet contract is about 4,000 yen, and the base contract price plus essential extras like the answering phone and iMode access adds up to around 3,000 yen, putting you at around about 60 US dollars per month, which does not include any free minutes, although there are loyalty discounts that should be factored in; up to 50% off for 10 year customers.

But I digress. Back at flat screen televisions, the survey results were as follows.
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