世論 What Japan Thinks

One place where mobile phone vendors probably make a reasonable amount of profit is on accessories purchased along with a new phone, as they have the customer already opening their wallet, so pushing a couple of extra bits and bobs onto the punter is a relatively easy sale. To find out how the customer thinks, japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by goo Research into mobile phone accessories.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 30th of July 2007 1,084 members of goo Research’s online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.9% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

Looking at Q2, I wonder if there is a possibility that the respondents were confused. I find it rather difficult to believe that less than one in five buy either an AC adaptor or a cradle, or conversely that almost one in five buy a second AC adaptor or cradle, so perhaps there was confusion as to whether or not to indicate that the separately paid for but usually purchased (I suspect) adaptor and cradle were actually to be counted as accessories.
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With all the survey companies keen to jump on the iPhone in Japan opinion bandwagon, here comes the latest offering from the company formally known as infoPLANT, Yahoo! Japan Value Insight with their take on Apple’s iPhone in Japan.

Demographics

Over the 25th and 26th of July 2007 400 members of Value Insight’s online monitor group were chosen to take part in a survey. They were split 50:50 male and female, and similarly the age distribution was 20.0% in each age group teens to the over fifties.

The report below is of the highlights of the survey; the full details of all 13 questions can be purchased for 50,000 yen, or 100,000 yen if you want the raw data too.

I find it interesting in Q5 that people want to spend not more than 22,655 yen, or under 200 US dollars, on the handset, well under half the price in the USA. Will we see a premium pricing plan for the iPhone in Japan?
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As I value my eardrums and my lungs, I’ve never ventured into the smoke-filled clamour of a pachinko parlour, although I did once enter a Kyotei boat racing stadium due to getting off the train to Miyajima in Hiroshima one stop early! Recently, MyVoice looked in detail at this, gambling in Japan.

Demographics

Over the first five days of July 2007 13,236 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was male, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 13% aged fifty or older.

With everyone’s favourite politician, the governer of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, talking about bringing casinos to Japan it is interesting to see in Q6 that people support this by about two to one, although half the population is still to decide. Personally, if done right I would bascially support the moves, but I fear the chances of it being anything other than a haven for dodgy Yakuza operations are rather slim.

Note that as pachinko and gambling in general seems to have a lower class image but the MyVoice community seems to have a slight bias towards the higher end of the class scale, I would suspect that the figures are if anything an underestimation. Earlier this year I reported on another survey on gambling, this time by Central Research Services.
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With the new 2007 summer mobile phone launch completed, with the main focus being on the top end high-specification models, NEPRO Japan came out with a report on a survey into cell phone upgrade needs.DemographicsBetween 10am on the 5th of July and 3am on the 6th of July 2007, NEPRO Japan made a questionnaire available through the menuing systems of the three main mobile service providers, namely NTT DoCoMo’s iMode, .

I try to restrict my new handset cost to under 10,000 yen, but then there’s always a new power adaptor, phone cradle, 2,000 yen contract renewal fee and a couple of other hidden costs that all add up.
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With the rainy season over for all of Japan and the worst of the stifling humidity almost past, let’s take a look with MyVoice at a recent survey on what people think about household damp.

Demographics

Over the first five days of July 2007 13,139 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was male, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 14% aged fifty or older.

Luckily, we have a fancy bathroom that includes a drying feature, but my main concern about dampness is a stickiness on the veneer flooring. The moisture removing feature of our air conditioners keep the air clear, but the unpleasant feeling underfoot is much more difficult, if not impossible, to get rid of.

Our last flat, however, was a real moisture magnet, and especially in the bedroom during the winter moisture would accumulate really easily, and no amount of water-repelling spray or other devices could get around that problem.
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I’m glad it’s not just me, as whenever we have a video tele-conference at work I always try to hide out of the way of the camera, and just can’t bring myself to look at my own face on screen. I can just about cope with my photo in private, but seeing myself on the big screen is just too much for me! This fact in the headline was one of the interesting facts to come out of a recent survey by Cross Marketing Inc and reported by japan.internet.com on the subject of web cameras.

Demographics

On the 18th and 19th of July 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing Inc’s online monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 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.

As a cross-reference, back in October of last year MyVoice looked at video calling on mobile phones, and there they found a similar lack of enthusiasm for video calling on mobile phones.
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Ahh, stress in Japan, I could write a book on it, but look, I’ve just got far too many things on my plate piling up already and I just can’t take my attention away from them and will you stop asking me to write more on it as I am planning on getting round to it but it’s rather difficult finding the time and I love my family more than my blogging; is that a crime? as you seem to be suggesting but then MyVoice published the results of a survey on stress.

Demographics

Over the first five days of July 2007 13,030 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was male, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 14% aged fifty or older.

One cold shower and two cold beers later: stress, and its darker cousin depression, is a serious problem in Japan, I feel, but not one that is very well understood. For example, a health-related magazine I read had a wee depression comic strip: guy transfers to a new devision as a team leader, gets under pressure and tries to live up to unreasonable expectations, working all hours, getting irritated and other classic symptoms. He goes to to talk to his old boss (over reasonable quantities of sake, of course) who tells him to not be so diligent and learn to delegate. And they all lived happily ever after. Ooh, and don’t get me started on reading advice from someone who should know better that ciggies and booze can relieve some stress.

I also wonder how much stress affects men in the trouser department, an unasked question below, as I suspect working on stress reduction (and fatigue reduction too) by for instance rationalising working hours could have a noticeable positive effect on the birth rate. Of course, I realise that changing the current working system is effectively impossible, but we have to have our dreams.
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One thing you soon notice in Japan is that a lot of people drink little bottles of… well, I’ve never really quite worked out exactly what is in these little bottles, but basically some supposedly healthy concoction. I did have one foreign friend who drunk them, but the smell of them was enough to put me off ever trying! To find out what the Japanese themselves are consuming, MyVoice performed a survey on these health drinks.

Demographics

Over the first five days of June 2007 13,228 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed an online survey. 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.

I suspect that some of these drinks do tend to quackery, but I don’t know what testing is required for them before they make their claims, although I would hazard a guess that the answer would be “not much”. Some of the advertisements have small captions saying that they are restricted to people over 15 and only one per day, so perhaps I should investigate the reason for that, although the cynical part of me says that it is just to try to convice the viewer of the potency of the brew.
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One of the latest fads in fruit these days seems to be the above “Godzilla’s egg”, an egg-shaped watermelon weighing in at a good few kilograms. As for me, one thing I miss in Japan is a real pear-shaped and pear-flavoured pear, not the watery apple-like thing that is all too common. Melons seem to missing something too, and don’t get me started on other entertainingly-shaped watermelons. However, I can’ t think of a smooth seque into a recent survey conducted by Yahoo! Japan Value Insight (ex infoPLANT) into the subject of fruit.

Demographics

Over the 29th and 30th of June 2007 300 members of the Yahoo! Japan Value Insight internet monitor panel completed an online questionnaire. Exactly 50:50 were male and female, but age groups are not listed, although these sorts of surveys from Value Insight tend to have the numbers in each age group evenly distributed.

You know when you’ve been in Japan too long when you order grapefruitS juice when speaking English.

There were also a few bonus facts added to the report. The full survey was 19 questions long, but just the highlights are in the translated article.

When buying Chuhai (cheap fruit-flavoured alcoholic drinks) rather than price it was flavour that was most important.

The survey was conducted a week after Snapple Peach and Rose Tea went on sale, and 13% were curious about the mix of peach and rose.

About one in three women were interested in buying high-quality fruit juices.

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I haven’t talked about Wikipedia for a while, so here goes with a report from japan.internet.com on the second regular survey from goo Research on Wikipedia. The previous survey was conducted two months ago.

Demogrpahics

Between the 9th and 13th of July 2007 1,045 members of goo Research’s online monitor group successfully completed an internet-based private questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample was male, 15.8% in their teens, 16.4% in their twenties, 22.3% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, and 29.0% aged fifty or older.
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