世論 What Japan Thinks

With the university enrollment season upon us (Japan starts in April rather than September or October), goo Ranking had a short survey looking at how university freshers from the regions tend to be when they come to Tokyo.

Demographics

Over the 9th and 10th of January 2013 1,072 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.4% of the sample were female, 8.5% in their teens, 14.1% in their twenties, 29.8% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 10.4% in their fifties, and 10.2% 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 left my back-of-beyond home to go to Scotland’s capital to study, but perhaps because in the UK there is less of likelyhood to study in your home town – hmm, is there really? Many of my Japanese colleagues did so, but in my class of about 30 in university, there was maybe just one (none at all?) from Edinburgh itself – such a distinction is less likely to be made?
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Just a quick pair of statistics for today, taken from the article by japan.internet.com on the SmartPhone Contents Report Vol.04 by Video Research Interactive.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 12th of February 2013 21,789 internet users completed an internet-based questionnaire. For the final report, the data obtained from the survey was weighted according to Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications statistics on internet users in 2011.

Sadly, my employer does not make it into either of the lists…
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japan.internet.com reported on the seventh regular survey by goo Research into internet advertising.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of February 2013 1,091 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, and 27.9% aged fifty or older.

If my experience is anything to go by, more people seeing contextual advertisements perhaps seems to mean more people avoiding them…

I don’t really appreciate the subtle difference between the “don’t know” and “didn’t know they appeared” answers in the questions below!
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Macromill research recently published a fascinating survey on one of the many phenomena in Japan I don’t quite understand university students and their recruitment activities.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 11th of Februrary 2013 300 members of the Macromill monitor group who lived in the Kanto area (Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa prefectures and Tokyo) and were in their third year in university or first year of a masters degree and engaged in job-seeking activites completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female.

If any of my readers have been through the Japanese recruitment cycle, please feel free to post about it, but as far as I know, students start around the middle of their third (of four) year to look for a job, submitting their applications, attending job fairs, getting interviews and all the rest, all at the expense of their studies. The hoped-for outcome is a firm job offer at the start of their fourth year, which could be seen as a plus to allow them to study hard for their last year, but I see it as basically making the last year pretty pointless.
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goo Ranking has a survey that shines a little bit of light in a corner of Japanese culture that gives me the willies, quite frankly, with a look at why people fall out of love with a liked idol.

Demographics

Over the 9th and 10th of January 2013 1,072 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.4% of the sample were female, 8.5% in their teens, 14.1% in their twenties, 29.8% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 10.4% in their fifties, and 10.2% 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.

The idol culture (note that both boys and girls can be idols) is a bit scary at times, in particular the grown men who chase AKB48. From a female point of view, I would guess that Takarazuka Revue stars would be considered idols.
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This is a survey that I hope goo Research will make into a series, their look at tablet devices, as reported by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 3rd of February 2013 1,087 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

Note that the one-sixth in the title refers to the one-sixth of the population that are members of goo Research, so there might be a positive bias towards tablet owners, but on the other hand one can imagine reasons why there might also be a negative bias.

A tablet is something I’d like to buy for the house for the times when I cannot be bothered booting up my netbook just to check the headlines or the like. The seven-inch Google Nexus tablet seems like a good fit for what I need.
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japan.internet.com reported on a survey by TIMES-CURRENT into Japanese women’s hair; although the article wanted to draw the conclusion in the headline, I would reckon it is more that women who are attractive put more effort into their hair. The full Japanese-language report may be accessed here.

Demographics

At some unspecified point in time and by some unspecified sampling methodology, 358 businesswomen and 353 businessmen living within the Tokyo area (Tokyo itself plus Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures) completed a survey. 33.5% of the women were in their twenties, 33.5% in their thirties, and 33.0% in their forties; for the men, 31.7% were in their twenties, 34.0% in their thirties, and 34.3% in their forties.

I am fortunate that my wife has the traditional Japanese wonderful long straight black hair; well, actually it’s a very dark brown, and she used to get into trouble in school for being suspected of dyeing it…
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goo Ranking took a look at what awful in-car smells would you be unable to tell the driver about.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of December 2012 1,059 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.4% of the sample were female, 10.8% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 28.8% in their forties, 11.5% in their fifties, and 9.6% 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.

It’s got to be ciggie smells for me too, followed closely by too much Magic Tree (are they still popular?), usually used to mask said ciggies! Here’s a car that probably manages to avoid number 12 only…

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goo Ranking asked their survey group to choose the times they come to want to quit using SNS (Social Network Services).

Demographics

Over the 9th and 10th of January 2013 1,072 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.4% of the sample were female, 8.5% in their teens, 14.1% in their twenties, 29.8% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 10.4% in their fifties, and 10.2% 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’m not much for SNS and it doesn’t really bother me what others think, but if I consider blogging instead, number three has to be my biggest downer!
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goo Ranking asked women from their monitor group to choose not in the least unusual ways to fail on Valentine’s Day, which, now that I think about it, is really quite an uninteresting-sounding topic.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of December 2012 1,059 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.4% of the sample were female, 10.8% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 28.8% in their forties, 11.5% in their fifties, and 9.6% 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. This question was for the women only.

It’s amazing the pictures one can find on Flickr – here’s a chocolate heart that has not just melted but also been run over by a car!

My wife had an experience today of leaving the buying until too late, and finding all the good stuff sold out!
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