世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc in the middle of November into the use of web sites from mobile phones. 300 mobile phone owners, 50.0% male and 50.0% female, with 20.0% in their teens, and 20.0% in their twenties, thirties, forties and fifties completed the private internet-based survey.
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[part 1] [part 2]

DIMSDRIVE Research published the results of a very timely survey on a subject I’ve been keen to learn more about, how the Japanese spend Christmas. Over a week at the end of November 4,312 people from their internet monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 45.8% of the sample was male, 63.5% were married, and 1.1% were in their teens, 17.1% in their twenties, 35.1% in their thirties, 27.0% in their forties, 14.4% in their fifties, and 5.3% aged sixty or older. The second half of the survey looks at Santa and the meaning of Christmas.

As for people who still believe in Santa, I suppose (or at least I hope) this means the number who believe in the spirit of giving and receiving, rather than in an actual fat guy coming down your chimney.

I’m surprised by the 13.2% who say it is a time to celebrate Christ’s birth (yes, yes, I know it is actually a pagan holiday that has been usurped), but whether they are answering in respect of their own beliefs or to demonstrate that they do really know that for other people it’s more than just an excuse to indulge to excess, I do not know.

It’s also interesting to note in the final table that Christian holidays, or perhaps more correctly just holidays imported from the West, are more significant than most of the traditional days. The reasons for this may be an interesting topic for future study.
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[part 1] [part 2]

DIMSDRIVE Research published the results of a very timely survey on a subject I’ve been keen to learn more about, how the Japanese spend Christmas. Over a week at the end of November 4,312 people from their internet monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 45.8% of the sample was male, 63.5% were married, and 1.1% were in their teens, 17.1% in their twenties, 35.1% in their thirties, 27.0% in their forties, 14.4% in their fifties, and 5.3% aged sixty or older. This first half of the survey looks specifically at what people will be spending money on.

Japan’s Christmas is a funny beast; gaijin blogs are awash with tales of KFC being the ultimate Xmas meal, Xmas cake being a strawberry cream sponge, Xmas Eve as a night at the love a posh hotel, and of course Christmas Day being just another day in the office. How close these popular images reflect reality will now be revealed!

Christmas back home was always a family event with almost no religious overtones, and although I naturally really enjoyed spending time with the family and I probably miss it more than anything else being in Japan, all the rest of the trappings from presents to carols was just a nuisance, so now in Japan I feel them doubly so.

Bah, humbug! Merry Stuffing Your Face Day!
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James over at Japan Probe has highlighted again “Haneru no Tobira” (the closest thing to a sketch show on prime time Japanese TV) and their oh-so-funny “bung on a big nose a blond wig and make like a gaijin” segment; these characters also appear in a Nissan mini-car advert, which has, as a poster named Don pointed out in the comments thread, been voted the most popular television commercial for three months running (Japanese-language link) by the CM Databank.

At the start of December japan.internet.com published the results of an opinion poll conducted by goo Research into next generation DVD systems. 1,091 members of their monitor group successfully completed an internet-based questionnaire. 47.2% of the group was male, 21.2% in their twenties, 38.0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, and 12.6% in their fifties.

I too am confused by the upcoming standards war, and have no particular urge to purchase either system, as almost all of the contents I currently watch is self-recorded video tapes, so I’ll probably end up getting whatever high-density DVD is fitted in the hard-disk recorder that I plan to buy sometime, although I suspect that standard DVD-based recorders might start dropping into a very attractive price band soon.
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With Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s Playstation 3 both now released in Japan, not forgetting Microsoft’s XBox 360, of course, japan.internet.com reported on an opinion poll conducted by Cross Marketing regarding next generation game consoles. They collected the opinions of 300 mobile phone users of their monitor group via a (mobile phone-targeted?) internet-based survey on the 6th and 7th of December. Their sample was split equally 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% aged 18 and 19, then 20.0% in their twenties, thirties, forties and fifties.

I wouldn’t put too much trust in the relative sales figures in Q1, as allowing for sampling error, the figures are almost indistinguishable, and since the Wii is barely out and the PS3 in short supply, just the very early adopters are being counted here.

For me, the most interesting result was those interested in the features of the console. Despite all the buzz before release about the PS3′s Cell chip, its advanced graphics, the Blu-ray disk drive and other advances, just 40% of those putting their money down were interested in doing so to get their hands on the new features. Conversely, the much more technically conservative Wii had 60% of the potential buyers after it, presumably mostly on the strength of the WiiMote.

This perhaps ties in with a talk I heard a couple of weeks ago given by Nintendo’s President Iwata on the philosophy behind the Wii. He wants to engage the casual gamer and the non-gamer much, much more than the vocal fan boy who scream for even more advanced bells and whistles. In addition, Sony sales may prove to be weak because of the relative lack of interest in parts that make it a rather expensive platform, and with the promise of future titles appearing to be the main stimulator of demand, if deadlines are missed or titles come out faster or better on the Wii, Sony may find their demand evaporating.
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NOTE: Click here for the Kanji of the Year 2007 results.

The results for the Kanji of the Year 2006 are finally released. Although perhaps much of the English language Japanese press has already covered the top three (I thought the results were released today, not yesterday!), this blog entry will cover the top 20 in full, plus language notes as the survey is sponsored by the 漢字検定, kanji kentei, a kanji training and testing company. I’ll also add my views on each kanji.

There were 92,509 total votes submitted from the start of November to the start of December; 4,534 were sumbitted on postcards, 408 by fax, 36,936 through a web page, 15,968 through vote collection boxes located in 111 places nationwide, and 34,663 total votes through 451 groups, presumably schools or other educational or cultural groups.

One big theme for the year was “life”, which heavily influenced the voting. First, a key story of this year was the birth of a male in the royal lineage, the first in forty years, and now second in line to the throne, Hisahito, the offspring of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko and, I suspect, some medical wizardry. Next, bullying caused many schoolchildren to commit suicide, and drunk drivers also took many lives. From a statistical viewpoint, I have yet to see the raw data, so I cannot be sure if there has actually been an increase in either of these two death rates, or if it is just an increase in reporting.

Other life-related news story were Kim Il-Jong’s nukes, old folks’ increased medical costs, problems with transplanting dodgy organs, doctor shortages, and so on.

Talking of the Kanji Kentei, if you’re wanting to study for it, there is new software out for the Nintendo DS that covers the syllabus for all 12 kanji levels, from total novice to 6,000 character wizards.
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japan.internet.com released the results of an opinion poll conducted this month by goo Research into searching for your own name and others on the internet. 1,088 people successfully completed the internet-based private questionnaire. 56.3% of the sample was male, 21.8% in their twenties, 41.5% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, and 11.5% in their fifties.

This practice is known as egosurfing and is fun from not just the ego point of view, but also for finding others of the same name – my non-double-barreled name is shared with a commentator for the Jets (what Jets, or what sport, I don’t know), a member of the Manitoba Hockey Players Foundation, president for Veridiem Inc, a member of Consumer Direct Scotland, and someone mapping Hong Kong’s cultural landscapes. Interestingly enough, my wife’s name turns up zero Japanese hits and just one false English hit.
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In another silly wee goo Ranking report, people chose their most entertaining Christmas-themed movie. As always, the ranking is the relative votes for each movie, and no demographic information is available. The survey was conducted towards the end of November.

For most Americans, as I understand it, Miracle on 34th Street is the Christmas movie, although I cannot say I know it at all. For me, I cannot honestly recall any particular Xmas-themed movie – a film version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (Scrooge below) is about the only thing that comes to mind, but even then, I can only really remember the Blackadder version. In the UK, the tradition is more Wizard of Oz in the morning, and a Bond movie after the Xmas pud and the Queen.

Some of the titles also seem to have very tenuous links to Christmas.
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The BBC just recently published a set of interesting statistics on British abroad and foreigners in Britian. Relevant to this blog are the number of British in Japan – about 23,000 – and the number of Japanese in Britain, 37,293 according to the 2001 census. This figure includes naturalised Japanese, however.