世論 What Japan Thinks

Recently, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into awareness of Google services.

Demographics

On the 7th of August 2007 335 members of JR Tokai Express Research’s online monitor panel who were mployed in public or private industry completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The male-female ratio was not reported, but 16.1% were in their twenties, 37.9% in their thirties, 36.1% in their forties, 8.4% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

I noted the omission of my favourite Google web application, Google Reader, their online feed reader. Indeed, it’s been quite I while since I last saw an RSS usage survey.

Also, it’s interesting they mention AdWords, the advertisers’ side of Google’s advertising empire, not the publishers’ side, AdSense, which I would have thought would have been more familiar.

CAVEAT: Thanks to Gen Kanai for highlighting the big flaw in this poll, namely that the figures suggest half of all web users always use Google. The text given in Japanese used “always” for the first answer in Q1, but perhaps “frequently” would be a closer reflection on reality. Previous surveys, and a forthcoming one too, suggests people favour Yahoo! by a considerable margin, so the presented 49.0% always using Google must be incorrect.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Ahh, this is a survey that is sure to be misconstrued and misquoted in the coming weeks and months. Already I’ve seen a poor summary from Kyodo News on Japan Today, and I’m waiting for the usual suspect to throw in his tuppence-worth on it. I’m talking about a recent survey sponsored by the Cabinet Office Japan on the subject of protecting human rights.

Demographics

Between the 21st of June and the 1st of July 2007 3,000 people aged 20 or older were randomly selected from the voter rolls. 1,766 people, or 58.9%, were available and chose to take part in the survey conducted by means of face-to-face interviews. 53.3% were female, 8.1% in their twenties, 16.8% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, 19.8% in their sixties, and 18.1% aged seventy or older.

In Q15, Hansen’s disease is leprosy.

Q17 is quite timely, with another story just coming to light about three guys who met through the internet with the purpose of doing someone in at random, it seems.

Oh, and the photograph is of ex-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and a couple of human rights mascots, both called Ken. Don’t ask.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Ahh, this is a survey that is sure to be misconstrued and misquoted in the coming weeks and months. Already I’ve seen a poor summary from Kyodo News on Japan Today, and I’m waiting for the usual suspect to throw in his tuppence-worth on it. I’m talking about a recent survey sponsored by the Cabinet Office Japan on the subject of protecting human rights.

Demographics

Between the 21st of June and the 1st of July 2007 3,000 people aged 20 or older were randomly selected from the voter rolls. 1,766 people, or 58.9%, were available and chose to take part in the survey conducted by means of face-to-face interviews. 53.3% were female, 8.1% in their twenties, 16.8% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, 19.8% in their sixties, and 18.1% aged seventy or older.

The Dowa issue in Q10 is the problem of treatment from the old Buraku-min caste as there is still some discrimination against them today.

Q13 is a difficult one to decipher. On a superficial level, just 3.2% believe foreigner discrimination is inevitable, which is good, but conversely only about three in ten tag unfair treatment as discrimination. Of course, what sort of unfair treatment the respondent is thinking about is not described, nor is even what sort of foreigner they are basing their answer on.
Read the rest of this entry »

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Ahh, this is a survey that is sure to be misconstrued and misquoted in the coming weeks and months. Already I’ve seen a poor summary from Kyodo News on Japan Today, and I’m waiting for the usual suspect to throw in his tuppence-worth on it. I’m talking about a recent survey sponsored by the Cabinet Office Japan on the subject of protecting human rights.

Demographics

Between the 21st of June and the 1st of July 2007 3,000 people aged 20 or older were randomly selected from the voter rolls. 1,766 people, or 58.9%, were available and chose to take part in the survey conducted by means of face-to-face interviews. 53.3% were female, 8.1% in their twenties, 16.8% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, 19.8% in their sixties, and 18.1% aged seventy or older.

The key question is, of course, what do Japanese consider human rights? This question is not directly asked, but Q1 sets the scene by mentioning the eternal and inviolate rights from the Constitution of Japan. This document includes basic rights such as the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, it also includes the right to choose and dismiss public officials and universal adult suffrage (Article 15), a right denied to foreigners, and the freedom to choose one’s occupation (Article 22), another right denied to many visa holders. Therefore, it can clearly be seen that the rights available to all citizens are not all available to resident aliens (and I personally believe that Article 15 and perhaps 22 are acceptable), therefore Q12 is not as bad as it sounds.
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Perhaps mainly due to the ease of embedding video into third party web pages, YouTube still has a lead of over three-to-one over its nearest competitor in the Japanese video sharing league. To find out more about how people use these sites, japan.internet.com reported on a survey by Cross Marketing Inc that looked at video file sharing.

Demographics

Over the 8th and 9th of August 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing Inc’s online monitor group completed a private online 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, 20.0% in their fifties.

If you want to look at Nico Nico Douga – oops, I’ve just looked at Nico Nico Douga, and new free accounts are limited to access between 2 am and 7 pm. I think their commenting system allows messages to be overlaid on videos, so if anyone knows the details, please leave a message!
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The four most frequent petty vehicular crimes I see in Japan are red light running, no adult seatbelts, not using child seats and, the focus of this article, the use of mobile phones. This was outlawed in Noverber 2004, and although the government reported a significant reduction in accidents caused by the use of mobile phones, there was some scepticism from me and others as to whether this was really due to safer driving and not just due to less reporting. So, japan.internet.com reported on the results of a survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into hands-free adapters.

Demographics

Over the 15th and 16th of August 2007 320 car-driving members of Cross Marketing Inc’s online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and 25.0% in their twenties, 25/0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% in their fifties.

You’ll have to buy the full report, I suspect, to find out the most interesting figures, such as when driving how frequently people make or receive calls or email on the mobile phones.
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When this report popped up on japan.internet.com’s web site, I first thought they’d made a mistake and reprinted a survey from last week, but after a double-check I realised that it was actually a rather clever and appropriate follow-on survey to that recent look at how working women viewed their lot in the office, this time JR Tokai Express Research Inc looking at how males perceived male-female disparity in the office.

Demographics

On the 17th of August 2007 331 men from the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group who worked in private industry took part in a private internet-based questionnaire. 100.0% were male, of course, 9.1% were in their twenties, 38.4% in their thirties, 37.8% in their forties, and 14.8% in their fifties.

One thing you might note is that this time those in their thirties and forties form the biggest group, whereas for women more were in their twenties and thirties. This reflects to some extent the reality in Japanese working life that women tend to abandon their careers (I looked before at some of the issues behind this phenomenon)

As noted before, for those studying Japanese, the word used the the questions below was 格差, kakusa, which translates to disparity rather than perhaps 差別, sabetsu, discrimination. I’m not sure how the different wordings might have affected the responses; for me “disparity” describes the state of the workplace, whereas “discrimination” suggests active policies favouring men.
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Second Life from Linden Labs, a virtual world that is gaining a lot of support from major companies in Japan but is still to actually officially launch in the country has been getting a lot of press coverage recently. To find out how it was affecting the average consumer, MyVoice performed a survey about using Second Life.

Demographics

Over the first five days of August 2007 12,386 members of the MyVoice online community successfully completed an online survey. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 28% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.

I’m not sure what the correct verb to use for being in Second Life is. “Play” seems too trivial and “be” sounds pompous, so I’ll just stick with the neutral but dull “use”, which is actually the direct translation of the Japanese verb used by MyVoice.

I’m sure one could draw conclusions from Q2, where the image of being unable to communicate with foreigners was stronger than that of being able to communicate with them!
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I saw this story on Japanese eager to get hands on iPhones, and whilst I am somewhat irked that USA Today did not choose to interview me on the subject, I did get a hearty laugh at this comment:

Culture. “The iPhone’s broad and easily accessible screen could actually be a liability in Japan,” says Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. Japanese are “accustomed to doing more in smaller spaces — and keeping things to themselves. The (pornographic comics) you download on the subway may be all too visible to your neighboring commuter” if you’re using an iPhone.

As anyone who regularly commutes on Japanese trains will tell you, everyone from youths to suited businessmen freely read manga of varying degrees of sauciness, and I’ve never seen anyone make any effort to hide the fact that they are studying the adult entertainment sections of the sports newspapers complete with not just topless women, but even the occassional pornographic image, although edited to hide any naughty bits.

Secondly, there is quite a large market in privacy screens, polarising filters for mobiles to stop people glancing sideways at your mobile, although with the iPhone being able to be viewed in both landscape and portrait orientation, there might be a slight technical issue here.

There’s been a terrible electrical storm here tonight, so no time to translate, so instead here’s a fun wee site called 脳内メーカー, Nounai me-ka-, or to translate literally, Brain Insides Maker that I saw on television a wee while ago, but due perhaps to overwhelming popularity, I’ve been unable to access it until recently. Based on your name, this site diagnoses what your brain consists of. To illustrate, here is me, Ken Y-N:

The blue kanji around the outside are worries, and the solitary purple character in the middle is my crime.

You can also diagnose compatability in couples. Here is perhaps the most famous Japanese (well, she’s ex-Japanese now) and gaijin pairing, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s brains:

The blue front of John’s brain is his wants, the gold pushed to the back is money, and the mass of purple Hs are for hentai, or perversion. Yoko’s brain, on the other hand, is full of nothing.

Other options are to find out your brain in a previous existence and what fetishs you might have. The site also works from mobile phones, but you might have to squint a bit to make out the pictures on them.

UPDATE: Mari’s diary also posted about Brain Maker, including a translation of all the kanji used to help those of you who can’t read Japanese.

PS: Just a quick reminder that you might also like to visit the not as impressive as the above My Buddhist Name for some Buddhism-related sillyness from me.