世論 What Japan Thinks

RTFM – Read The Friendly (or substitute other words begining with F) Manual. I wonder if there is a slang expression in Japanese with a similar meaning? To find out whether or not RTFMing goes on in Japan, Cross Marketing Inc produced a report, with the highlights published by japan.internet.com, on the topic of paper manuals for personal computers.

Demographics

Over the 10th and 11th of October 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing Inc’s online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. As usual for Cross Marketing, there was a 50:50 male and female split, and 20.0% in each age band from teens to fifties.

As perhaps a cross-reference, I looked at this topic last year in relation to mobile phone manuals.

I don’t know why in Q1SQ2 they didn’t offer as one of the answers that it is quicker to look up the internet or an electronic manual, or even just phone the support line. I’d love to have seen data for both these actions
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Read more on: computer,cross marketing,manual

Whilst researching the previous posting, I discovered much to my surprise this was available:

Yes, for a mere 798 yen (just over US$7 at the moment) you can buy the strap of the web site! I’ll have to approach Strapya to see if they also want to make brainscannr the strap!

Note: if you buy through the above links you can support both of our sites.

Read more on: brainscannr

Here’s another of these surveys that I find particularly interesting, looking at perhaps rather trivial matters, but giving answers that I hope one day may prove useful, although where exactly, I just don’t know! This time it was japan.internet.com reporting on a survey by goo Research into mobile phones in general, but in this report they chose to focus on dirty screens on said mobiles.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 15th of October 2007 1,092 members of goo Research’s online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample was male, 17.5% in their teens, 19.8% in their twenties, 17.2% in their thirties, 17.6% in their forties, 17.0% in their fifties, and 10.9% in their sixties.

This survey coincided with the release of a new range of mobile phone screen cleaning mascots from Strapya (very reasonable prices and shipping costs; help What Japan Thinks by buying your cuddly toys through the link above), so join the 10% or so of Japanese cell phone users with cute cleaners! I personally have a Monokuro Boo cubic pig cuddly cleaner on my phone, but I actually just wipe on my sleeve.
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Read more on: goo research,habits,mobile phone

Recently, Yahoo! Japan Value Insight, in conjunction with Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting, took a close look at sports. The full report seems to have lots of interesting information, but this publically-released article contains just the highlights, although these in themselves have some interesting answers.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 4th of September 2007 2,000 members of the Yahoo! Japan Value Insight Questionnaire Panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The group was split 50:50 male and female, and the ages of the respondents ranged from 15 to 69.

One may notice that the traditional national sport of Japan, sumo, does not feature in the top five of Q1

I also found it interesting in Q10 that compared to men, women were more interested in schoolboys than grown men, as it were. High school baseball and the high school golfer found more favour with the females questioned.
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Read more on: sport,value insight

Just yesterday I launched a new web site, brainscannr.com. To explain what it is, here’s what my average visitor looks like:

Oops, my readers look none too happy…

There’s a couple of Easter Eggs hidden there (that’s not one of them, honest!), with more being added as I think of them!

Read more on: brainscannr,Site News

[part 1][part 2]

We’ve looked before at handsomeness, but this time Macromill Inc looked at the slightly more specific topic of men’s grooming. This report is rather detailed, so apologies in advance!

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of September 2007 515 male members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 20% were aged between 15 and 19, 20% in their twenties, 20% in their thirties, 20% in their forties, and 20% in their fifties. In addition, 282 people, or 54.8%, were not married.

It does seem interesting that almost a third are concerned about sweat-related issues, although there is no follow-on question regarding what people try to do to counter this. However, Q1 in the first half of the survey indicated just under a quarter purchase deodorant, so one does wonder why the extra 5% or more don’t use it.
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Read more on: macromill

[part 1][part 2]

We’ve looked before at handsomeness, but this time Macromill Inc looked at the slightly more specific topic of men’s grooming. This report is rather detailed, so apologies in advance!

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of September 2007 515 male members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 20% were aged between 15 and 19, 20% in their twenties, 20% in their thirties, 20% in their forties, and 20% in their fifties. In addition, 282 people, or 54.8%, were not married.

I find Q1 a bit difficult to understand, especially for basics like shampoo. I find it difficult to believe that 20% don’t wash their hair, but perhaps it is a differentiation between just cheap no-brand no-particular-effect shampoo versus a name brand. Conversely, does only 53.7% using face soap mean the rest just splash with water, or use hand soap, or don’t have a separate hand soap and face soap? Finally, just over half using rinse is surprisingly high to me.
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Read more on: macromill

Following up, I suppose, on a recent ranking survey regarding what were the basic dealbreakers for potential spouses, goo Rankings came up with another entertaining survey looking at what husbands’ bad habits wives want to tell them to fix, but just can’t, and vice versa. The survey was conducted between the 28th and 30th of August 2007.

My wife informs me that she has no bad habits that I should ask her to fix (now that’s a bad habit that doesn’t feature on the list!), but my two main bad habits also don’t feature on the list, namely adjusting the lay of the land, as it were, and noxious gas emissions.

I suppose that number 15 for men and 18 for women is shorthand for a lack of rumpy-pumpy.
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Read more on: gender,goo ranking,habits

I’m still actually to sign up to any SNS so please don’t ask me for mixi invites, although recently I nearly joined MySpace due to hearing about some punk from my school days. To find out how the average Japanese ends up on mixi or other SNSs (Social Networking Services), japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by goo Research, their 9th regular survey on SNS.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 4th of October 2007 1,086 members of goo Research’s internet monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample was male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve been skipping recent editions of this survey as the reported statistics have not been terribly interesting. However, this time I think the data is worth reporting. I find it interesting that nearly two-thirds of the current users have not actually invited anyone else to join, although given the fact that mixi is so well-established as the market leader, like a pyramid scheme once the market is saturated those at the bottom run out of people to invite as most people who are interested in joining have already joined, perhaps.
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Read more on: goo research,sns

With the recent news about DoCoMo and au by KDDI cutting monthly costs but increasing handset prices, japan.internet.com reported on a timely survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into mobile phone pricing.

Demographics

Over the 3rd and 4th of October 2007 330 mobile phone using members of Cross Marketing’s online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 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 in fifties.

Note that in Q1 the price is for the handset only, not all the accessories too. I paid about 8,000 yen for my last one, but I got a company discount. I feel too that the basic monthly fee is quite high, although lots of discounts get applied to the price. However, due to the multiple discount schemes, separate charges for services, etc, the basic plan fee always stands out as just about the biggest number on my bills.
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Read more on: cross marketing,mobile phone,money