世論 What Japan Thinks

A few weeks ago you might remember that I translated a survey on the DS versus the PSP. This was picked up by Michael Mace over at Mobile Opportunity and written up as a detailed analysis in Mobile gaming in Japan: A different world. I enjoyed reading that entry, so I hope you do too.

I also noticed that Shari at My So-Called Japanese Life wrote a nice piece on what she gets out of this site.

In one of these strange and totally unscientific surveys that goo Rankings rather often conducts, we find out who the Japanese consider to be a model international couple. That is “model” as in “role model”, not “fashion model”. There is no demographic or other information for this poll, except that it was conducted over three days towards the end of November.

I believe the gist of the original Japanese question is after which international couple’s example would they like to model their relationship. One wonders about the thought processes that went on in the selection of two other-kind-of-model brides.

You may also note that all bar one seems to be a marriage with a white foreigner.

UPDATE: Following feedback from Roy, I’ve promoted (demoted?) Kumiko Goto to just “model”.
Read the rest of this entry »

My home internet connection decided to go on the blink yesterday, and I can only access the outside world by standing on top of the bed in the spare room with my portable PC perched on top of a rattan screen, leeching my next door neighbour’s wireless visiting an internet cafe.

Normal service should be resumed tomorrow.

I see the 2007 Bloggies are open for nominations. I could ask for a nomination in the Asian Weblog category, but I know that I’m not the best (although last year’s winner was perhaps not the best), but I think I would rather get noticed in the best topical or best-kept-secret (is that best-kept secret or best kept secret?) categories. If you could drop my blog’s name into any of these categories I’d be more than grateful!

Second, with all the survey companies being on holiday, and of course with me being on holiday too, the quality’s been a bit lower than usual. My apologies for that, but I’ve got a nice topical survey in the pipeline, and hopefully next week will see a flood of new market research for me to translate.

Third, even if that happens, I’m in cram mode for the Kanji Kentei next month, so perhaps I might have slightly less time than usual to translate, so if I drop to a frequency of once every two days, you know why!

The above phrase may often be heard throughout Western homes a couple of days into the New Year as everyone has had their fill of left-over turkey, but what about in Japan? goo Ranking decided to find out what people fancied eating when they got fed up with お節, osechi, the traditional Japanese New Year cuisine. As usual, there’s no demographic information, and the survey was unseasonably carried out at the end of November.

This site described the posh shop-bought osechi, but most often it is home-made, and in our case consists of miso soup with mizuna and mochi. I fortunately managed to break the monotony with a 10-pack of Mister Donuts (twice!), but I could fair go a pizza myself!
Read the rest of this entry »

As part of their 102nd Ranking Survey, DIMSDRIVE Research looked at average sleep time. 5,391 members of their monitor pool responded to their internet-based questionnaire at the start of October. In related news, Mutantfrog Travelogue reported on a recent government survey (which I might translate in full later) that showed the average Japanese person wakes up at 6:43AM.

Whether the figures below are for an average weekday, or if they include weekends, I don’t really know. Also unclear is whether time spent trying to fall asleep or dozing in the morning is included. For myself, I’m lucky to get 6 hours on weekdays and perhaps just around 8 hours on weekends. With the holidays coming up, I’d love to get a solid 8 hours kip for a week, but…

Note that women get only slightly more sleep than men – although the average salaryman may come home late from work or the pub after the wife has gone to bed, it is the lot of the housewife to wake earlier to prepare breakfast and packed lunches for her hubby and offspring.
Read the rest of this entry »

At the start of December last year, MyVoice surveyed its internet community on the subject of train manners. 13,586 people successfully completed an internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 3% in their teens, 21% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 24% in their forties, and 13% aged fifty or older.

Interestingly enough, the most common gripe I hear from other foreigners about the trains in Japan, that of people reading porno manga openly, irritates just 6.6% of the sample, and is seen as bad manners by barely three in ten, less than the number who consider putting on make up as a sign of poor breeding.

For me, snuffling without blowing one’s nose is the most boorish activity on trains, but that’s just my westernness showing! Not bothering to turn one’s phone to manner mode would come second, and it is mostly people who seem old enough to know better who do this, sadly.
Read the rest of this entry »

With Japan’s population aging at quite a pace, japan.internet.com published the results of some timely research by JR Tokai Express Research into old folks-targeted web sites. They interviewed 330 mature people from their internet monitor group; 74.5% were male, and 70.9% were in their 50s, 26.1% in their sixties, and 3.0% in their seventies.

Note being of that age yet, I cannot really comment, but my father is currently learning how to surf as part of free training provided by the Scottish (or British?) government for everyone of a retired age. Currently all of the internet is delegated to my mother, so we’ll see wht he gets up to after he finished his training!
Read the rest of this entry »

japan.internet.com recently published the results of a poll conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into the use of calendars, both computer desktop-based and paper ones. They interviewed 330 people employed in both the public and private sectors from their monitor panel in the middle of December, with 77.0% of the sample being male, 16.4% in their twenties, 49.1% in their thirties, 28.8% in their forties, 5.2% in their fifties, and 0.6% in their sixties.

I’m a big paper and pencil person myself, although I do occasionally download some calendar wallpaper for both my computer and my mobile phone from Frente Spiral.
Read the rest of this entry »

Instead of the usual message of greetings or look back at the year, instead I’ve prepared a wee Flash greetings card for you all.

あけましておめでとうございます！