世論 What Japan Thinks

To coincide with the first anniversary of the release of Nintendo’s DS Lite handheld console in Japan on March 2nd 2006, japan.internet.com published the results of a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into portable gaming, although this report focuses on the DS Lite only.

Demographics

330 people from JR Tokai Express Research’s online monitor group completed the survey conducted over four days between the 7th and 10th of March.52.4% of the sample was male, 24.2% in their twenties, 45.5% in their thirties, 21.8% in their forties, 6.7% in their fifties, and 1.8% in their sixties.

I still haven’t bought my DS sadly. I suppose I could use the excuse that it’s always sold out whenever I go to the shops, but the truth be told I’m a little scared to buy just in case I get addicted and start ignoring this blog!
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Over the first five days at the start of February, MyVoice asked their online monitor group about earthquakes.

Demographics

13,145 people successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 19% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 13% in their fifties.

I’ve not (yet..) experienced a destructive earthquake, although living in the Kansai area I’ve heard lots of stories of the hardships resulting from the Great Hanshin-Akashi Earthquake of 1995. I’ve also visited the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution (earthquake museum) in Kobe which has an extremely powerful recreation of the scenes during and after the earthquake. There is also a reference library there, which includes maps of all the active faults in Japan – the chances are probably rather high that your home too may be sitting rather close to a fault line. They also have survivors of the earthquake presenting various earthquake-related issues, from describing ground liquification to discussing emergency evacuation kit preparation, with translators on-hand to help out if need be.

Since I get a bit of traffic searching for it, I think I should explain the Japanese 震度, Shindo earthquake scale. Rather than report the magnitude as the key measure of the strengh of the tremor as in the Richter scale, the Shindo scale is used to present a more subjective, and more useful to the people affected by it, evaluation of the effects of the quake. The Shindo measures how one might actually experience the shake. 1 or 2 are barely perceptable wobbles, 3 is dishes rattling, 4 wakes you up and some things might dance off tabletops (this is about as high as I’ve experienced), 5弱, jaku, lower is books popping out of shelves, most things falling over, and perhaps a few cracks in cheaply built houses, 5強, kyou, upper is televisions and wardrobes (and perhaps you too) toppling, deformed doors and structural damage, 6弱, jaku, lower is dancing bookcases, 6強, kyou, upper is nearly everything breaking and falling over, and finally 7 is OH MY GOD WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into digital cameras. Over the 21st and 22nd of February they interviewed 300 people from their internet monitor group by means of a private questionnaire.

Demographics

As usual for Cross Marketing, the sample was 50:50 male and female, and 20:20:20:20:20 of teenagers, people in their twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties.

Just last weekend I bought a new camera, a Panasonic DMC-FS1 LS1. Yes, in that pictured pink! I haven’t got round to opening it, but I had to get a new one after dropping the old one a couple of weeks ago due to me getting zapped by static electricity when getting it passed from wifey, knocking the lens extension motor out of kilter when it landed on the ground.

I print infrequently, and save the photos to the hard disk. I think the option of saving to removable media implies moving the photos to DVD or CD as soon as possible, rather than just using external media as a back-up for the hard disk.
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Continuing on the movie theme, last week japan.internet.com published the results of research conducted by goo Research into cinema ticket buying habits. I would love to find a web site that allows you to buy tickets at a discount, but such a site doesn’t seem to exist. Does anyone know of a good one?

Demographics

1,064 members of goo Research’s online monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.1% of the sample was male, 23.3% in their twenties, 22.3% in their thirties, 22.5% in their forties, 21.3% in their fifties, and 10.6% in their sixties.

It may be interesting to cross-reference the results here with the recent MyVoice survey I published yesterday on cinema attendance.
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Do you fancy damning my web site (or even your own) with faint praise? Visit Alexa’s custom t-shirt shop, and buy a shirt that proclaims just how popular my web site is. Note that I make no money on the deal, not that I expect anyone would want to buy one anyway!

I spotted this report of a survey on the top 10 photo locations in Japan (or did they mean Tokyo only?) as chosen by 100 tourists randomly stopped in the Tokyo streets.

The article, sadly, is missing photographs of said items, although a quick Google Images search should show you the missing items; in fact, as a public service, here goes:

10. Tsukiji Fish Market
9. Kimono
8. Japanese street signs
7. Mt. Fuji
6. Vending machines
5. Narita Airport
4. Shibuya Crossing
3. Asahi Beer Headquarters
2. Tokyo Imperial Palace
1. Kaminari-mon.

goo Research recently published the results of some research conducted in cooperation with Yomiuri Shimbun into fish and shellfish, conducted amongst their online monitor group between the 16th and 18th of the February.

Demographics

1,091 successfully completed the questionnaire. 50.3% were male, 21.8% in their twenties, 18.4% in their thirties, 21.6% in their forties, 17.5% in their fifties, and 20.6% aged sixty or older.

Note that in Q7 just 1% eat fish or shellfish less than once a month, which suggests that vegetarianism still has a long, long way to go in Japan! In addition, I wouldn’t be surprised if a significant part of that 1% included people who eat meat instead.

You may be interested in cross-referencing this with another recent survey on tuna habits and quota cut awareness.
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MyVoice published the results of a survey conducted over five days at the start of February into going to the movies.

Demographics

13,171 members of their monitor group successfully completed the survey; 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 20% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 13% in their fifties.

Recently I’ve been to the cinema rather a lot; perhaps I’d be in the eleven to fifteen times? I think about twice a month sounds about right. As for the films I’d recommend, last weekend’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer was a very enjoyable but rather dark murder-mystery; Pirates of the Carribean, if just for Johnny Depp’s frequent buggering (as it were); and Cars, because I love Pixar! I wanted to ask for my money back after The Da Vinci Code.
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Following a link I spotted entitled Nearly Half Believe “Expert” Health Advice Dispensed on Boob Tube on Rising Sun of Nihon, I tracked down the original survey on health information dispensed by television programs, conducted by the Institute of Future Technology in the middle of February. The only demographic information available is that 1,055 people completed a web-based survey.

This survey was conducted after the Aru Aru Daijiten natto scandal blew up, so that should be kept in mind when viewing the results.
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As a sort-of follow-up to yesterday’s survey on holidays involving overnight stays, this time we’ll look at a survey by infoPLANT into both overnight and day return trips. The fieldwork was carried out over a period of six days in the middle of January. Note that the full paid-for survey contains many more questions.

Demographics

1,500 members of the infoPLANT questionnaire panel responded to the survey. The sample was balanced 50:50 male and female in each age group, and exactly 20% in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and sixties or older.

I’m surprised (actually, I’m not surprised, really) by the top holiday information source being television travel programs. I remember back in the UK the travel programs would have the staff joining a standard tour, sometimes with family, often staying in middle-of-the-road hotels, and participating in the usual activities that the average holidaymaker might take part in, resulting in a review that I personally could trust; here in Japan the traveller gets the best room, professionaly lit to highlight everything, eat off the top of the menu with the chef or owner hovering over the table, and get the one-on-one guided tour of the sites, declaring everything to be absolutely wonderful, including, no doubt, the brown envelopes filled with unmarked bills from the featured businesses. I know of no travel shows that make any attempt to appear genuine.
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