世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey conducted by goo Research into
awareness and use of Second Life. Over three days in the middle of February 1,073 people from goo Research’s online monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Demographically, 51.5% were male, 13.0% in their teens, 23.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 21.4% in their forties, and 20.8% in their fifties. Note that at the time of the survey there is no Japanese language version of Second Life, and I am unsure as to even how well it supports Japanese language, but the launch of a fully localised version is not far off at all, it seems.

I get most of my information regarding Second Life from first The Register (possibly NSFW material) and second Something Awful (definitely NSFW!), so my view of it is, shall we say, rather skewed. I have no intention of taking part myself, as I’ve never been much for socialising in my First Life, let alone the Second. Quite frankly it all sounds too scary!

Coincidentaly, I also got my very first Japanese Second Life spam last night advertising the chance to meet some bored housewives for virtual rumpy-pumpy in a virtual manshon. The advertisement featured photographs of real-life women and a real-life block of flats, which seemed rather much like it was designed to entice you into the real world via the virtual.
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CNET Japan recently published the results of a survey conducted by a new-to-me research company, Media Interactive, regarding the video sharing site “YouTube”. The complete survey is not available, so this report may appear to be incomplete in parts. My apologies in advance. Recently the issue of respecting copyright on YouTube in Japan has become quite a major topic.

Over the first two days of February they interviewed 2,186 members of their internet monitor group (sign up here for iResearch and perhaps win a Wii, iPod, DS, etc) over the age of 18 by means of a private internet-based questionnaire. No demographic information is available, however.
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With today being official Day of the Cat – 22nd of the 2nd month, pronounced, with a suitable cat accent, にゃん・にゃん・にゃん, nyan, nyan, nyan, the Japanese for “Meow, meow, meow”, let’s look at a recent goo Ranking into cats’ cute actions. The survey was conducted between the 18th and 20th of January.

I’m disappointed that purring comes in a miserable 8th, and sleeping in laps is nowhere.
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After the rather heavy and depressing survey on public order in Japan, let’s change the tone completely with another light-hearted and lightweight survey from goo Ranking. This time they asked both men and women what things they would be most prepared to stand in a lengthly queue for. The votes were gathered between the 18th and 20th of January, but no further demographic information is available. As usual, the score for each item is the percentage of the top votes that it received.
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[part 1] [part 2]

The Cabinet Office Japan recently released a survey into people’s thoughts about public safety in Japan. 3,000 people aged 20 or older were chosen by random, and between the 14th and 24th of December 1,795 of them, or 59.8%, took part in face-to-face interviews. Of those who did not participate, 124 had moved, 79 were on long-term absenses from home, 365 were not at home, 58 could not be found, 514 refused to participate, and 65 did not take part for other reasons. Demographically, 54.1% were female, 8.9% between 20 and 29, 15.0% between 30 and 39, 16.9% between 40 and 49, 21.9% between 50 and 59, 20.7% between 60 and 69, and 16.7% aged 70 or older.

The “gaijin hanzai” comment is related to the uproar regarding of widespread availability of a magazine playing on precisely the fears expressed in this survey.

I was surprised by the results in Q11 – my sterotypical image of the Japanese is that on the whole they would tend to help the police to the best of their efforts, but we see that they have reservations, especially if the crime is a relatively minor one that doesn’t involve family or friends.
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[part 1] [part 2]

The Cabinet Office Japan recently released a survey into people’s thoughts about public safety in Japan. 3,000 people aged 20 or older were chosen by random, and between the 14th and 24th of December 1,795 of them, or 59.8%, took part in face-to-face interviews. Of those who did not participate, 124 had moved, 79 were on long-term absenses from home, 365 were not at home, 58 could not be found, 514 refused to participate, and 65 did not take part for other reasons. Demographically, 54.1% were female, 8.9% between 20 and 29, 15.0% between 30 and 39, 16.9% between 40 and 49, 21.9% between 50 and 59, 20.7% between 60 and 69, and 16.7% aged 70 or older.

The “gaijin hanzai” comment is related to the recent uproar regarding widespread availability of a magazine playing on precisely the fears expressed in this survey.

When I first heard about this survey I was really keen to get hold of it and translate it, but when I saw quite how much the fear of the foreign peril seems to have been stirred up, I got quite depressed. When the news of this poll appeared on Japan Today I posted a sarcastic comment (that got pulled by the moderators!) about how I was disappointed that foreigners did not make the list of dangers in that summary by Kyodo News. Little did I know that it was perhaps selective editing by the press so as not to hurt our English-speaking feelings. About the only bright spot I can find is that international terror organisations, etc, (with that “etc” covering local terror groups, the main ones so far that have actually attacked Japan) are not high in people’s concern. Note though that Q5 mentioned only international terrorists, there is no “etc”, or other questions on local loony groups.
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The theme for this month, closing date midnight Japan time on the 28th, is “Japanese Gadgets”. Any and all entries welcome, from news of the latest toys to how you use your gadgets in your daily life.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research on the subject of mobile phones and spam. Over three days at the start of February 330 peope from their monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 51.8% feamle, with 26.7% in their twenties, 40.6% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 5.5% in their fifties, and 2.1% in their sixties.

I’ve been spam-free on my phone, perhaps because I only sign up with reputable firms. However, my wife has used YNot electronic greeting cards just recently, and has been plagued with a flood of spam from Rakuten partners. As I mentioned in another post when talking about Rakuten, they really are bad for sending spam and making it painful to unsubscribe. However, I think this time I have managed to unsubscribe from everything…
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In January infoPLANT published the results of research conducted over three days in the middle of December into the topic of mobile phone electronic wallets (Osaifu keitai). They interviewed 1,500 mobile phone users from their monitor panel; the split was 50:50 male and female, and 750 people aged from 15 to 29, and 750 aged from 30 to 59. In addition, 500 people were DoCoMo users, 500 au, and 500 SoftBank. The full report looks at many aspects of mobile phone usage, but this article just covers the highlights presented in their summary.

I’ve never owned a phone with the required electronic wallet IC chip inside, and just last week when my wife upgraded to a new phone with the required electronics, she only agreed to have the functionality enabled as we got an extra 1,000 yen discount for doing so!

I’ve never actually seen anyone use their mobile phone’s electronic wallet features – it might be interesting to ask how many people just use them once or twice, then give up and go back to another method.

It’s interesting to note in Q4 that over a third have no interest in any electronic wallet features.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted at the start of the month by Cross Marketing Inc regarding children and mobile phones. 300 members of their monitor panel who had children successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and the ages of their children (some of the respondents had more than one) were 11.0% under three years old, 41.7% older than three but not yet entered elementary school, 30.0% in the first two years of elementary school (aged six or seven), 19.7% in the third or fourth year of elementary school, 28.0% in the fifth and sixth year of elementary school, 31.0% in middle school, and 20.7% in high school or older.

This is one subject I can’t really have an opinion on until I have children of my own! I do feel, though, that primary school age is still too young, but on the other hand, because not only adults but children too put in lots of unnecessary overtime in school-related (or cram school-related) activities, and since even in the height of summer it is dark by shortly after 7pm, the need to be reassured by having an easy method of contacting one’s children is strong. Therefore, I am quite surprised that just one in five give their children mobiles.
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