世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

The answer to headline is “not very much, quite frankly. And just 17 times a year.”

The Japanese division of the drug company Bayer recently published the results of a survey into Japanese married couples’ bedroom life. They interviewed 103 men and 103 women, all currently married, from each decade of life from their thirties to their sixties, excepting men in their forties, where they only had 102 people, making 823 people in total. The fieldwork was conducted between the 9th and 12th of June this year, by means of an internet questionnaire. No information is available on how the respondents were chosen.

The main reason for this research is, of course, that Bayer is famous for Viagra (oops, hope that doesn’t trip your spam filters), so it wanted to highlight issues surrounding the condition known in Japanese by the initials of the English term, ED (I’ll let you work that one out yourself!), probably because it’s less of a mouthful than the Japanese term 勃起機能の低下, bokki kinou no teika. My dictionary suggests 勃起障害, bokki shougai, is the official term, but perhaps that second term sounds too negative – “malfunction” rather than just “reduced functionality” in the first case. Note that for reasons I’m not too sure of, a lot of the terminology is English loanwords, even when Japanese equivalents exist; for example, ED as noted above, then セックス and セックスレス (sekkusu and sekkusuresu, sex and sexless, to name but three.

As per usual for any bedroom-related surveys, no, I will not tell you where I stand (as it were), but instead relate a wee anecdote. The first time my mother-in-law came to visit our flat shortly after marriage, and as wifey showed her the bedroom, complete with double bed, of course, the mother-in-law asked where I slept.

A tip of the hat to Mari’s Diary to alerting me to this survey! No, I don’t know what the penguins are for either!
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infoPLANT recently published a survey into dog food. Using their usual method of a public self-selecting survey from within the iMode menuing system, 5,278 people successfully completed the survey during one week at the beginning of August. The sample size was 65.9% female. This time, the self-selecting nature of the survey is not too much of a problem, as I doubt if there is much correlation between having a dog and having a mobile phone.

Please excuse the sensationalist but accurate story title; I’ve found recently that it’s the silly stuff that attracts the punters, and some serious but important surveys have had very little traffic. In fact, there’s a new premium dog food on the market that advertises itself as being not just edible, but in fact tasty for humans too! The company even has the British Royal Family’s seal of approval, but I can’t quite imagine the Queen sitting down with the corgis and tucking in together, somehow. Prince Charles, though, now that’s a different matter.
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japan.internet.com published the results of a survey performed in the middle of August by Cross Marketing Inc into the use of mobile phone email. As usual for this company, they interviewed 150 men and 150 women who owned mobile phones by means of a private internet survey. One sixth were in their teens, twenties, and so on up to the sixties. Although the full survey covered many aspects of mobile phone email, this extract concerns just sending email.

This is another of these surveys that in itself is perhaps not too interesting in itself, especially to one who is not a resident of Japan, but as I was translating I could relate it to how I have seen others use email and have realised their way of using is not really that odd after all.

For me, nearly all my email (around five per day) is to my wife, and her address is set up as a kind of shortcut, so I think I’d be in the “Other” group for Q3.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by JR Tokai Express Research into issues regarding television, including the upcoming switch-over to digital terrestrial broadcasting. They interviewed by means of a private internet-based questionnaire 330 members of their monitor panel; 59.7% were male, 20.3% in their twenties, 33.0% in their thirties, 27.3% in their forties, 14.5% in their fifties, and 4.8% in their sixties.

For my readers who might not have heard the news, on July 24th, 2011, all analogue terrestrial television broadcasting will be switched off. Most of the main population centres are already covered by digital broadcasting, and most of the new televisions either come with decoders built-in, or have ports (isn’t it a D-4) that allow a separate decoder box to be attached and full high-vision enjoyed, I believe. However, I cannot find any English site that describes what box might be necessary, and the main Japanese site, sponsored, I believe, by most of the major electrical manufacturers, seems keener to persuade you that you need a whole new television rather than just a wee box of tricks. If anyone knows of a clear English explanation of the whole affair, please let me know and I’ll add a link.
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With the impending IPO of mixi (related here by Gen Kanai), at an initial offer price of just over a million yen, or nearly £5000, per share, it may be timely to have a look at a report on japan.internet.com of goo Research’s second regular look into Social Networking Services, or SNS. 1,090 members of their internet monitor group responded to the survey; 55.8% were female, 1.6% in their teens, 22.1% in their twenties, 39.2% in their thirties, 24.6% in their forties, 9.4% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

Last time I published an SNS survey I asked for an invite; I did get a couple of offers, but I’ve still not had time to actually take up any of them! It would be nice to have an account just for the sake of being able to say I do have one, and also as I do get the occasional hit from mixi that I cannot view without an account…

Q1: Do you use Social Networking Services (SNS)? (Sample size=1,090)

Currently using an SNS	23.9%
Used to use SNSs but don’t any longer	5.4%
Never used one	44.0%
Don’t know what they are	26.7%

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goo Ranking recently published the results of another silly ranking survey, this time on which famous person born overseas but living in Japan would you most like to go on an overseas trip with. As usual, no demographic information is available, and the scores given are percentages of the top votes.

Don’t ask me why Thane is so popular, and many of the other answers seem like people were just struggling to remember any gaijin’s name. Note that KONISHIKI, an ex-sumo champion, is actually a naturalised Japanese, I believe. Also note that for some reason they give the state that the USA people were born in, and “Los Angeles State” is an error in the published survey!

From that list, I think Panzetta Girolamo (a middle-aged Italian playboy sort of guy) is about the only person who might be interesting to go off on a trip with.
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As part of DIMSDRIVE’s 89th Ranking Research they enquired into people’s views on women-only carriages in trains. They asked three questions to women and one to men.

Compared to other bad manners in and around trains, the women-only carriage regulations are surprisingly well-respected, at least on the lines I have frequented, with it being a relatively rare sight to see a man riding on them, even during the rush-hour peak, considering the number who ignore other regulations such as the no mobiles or no talking on the phone signs, or who smoke outside the designated areas.

Also please note that in Q1 the usage may seem to be low, but if one rides outside of peak rush hours, the trains tend to be not so overcrowded so the risk of getting groped is lower, so the figures here should not be taken simply at face value.

There is also a news report from the Mainichi Shimbun via Japan Probe about how groping is down overall in Tokyo, but up on lines with recently-introduced or expanded women-only carriage services.
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The headline may very well be true, but as part of DIMSDRIVE’s 90th Research Ranking survey, they asked people what they thought the best free things in life were.

I have to pretty much agree with the rankings below; the mottainai part of me wants to disagree with the supermarket carrier bag option, but they always get reused at home as rubbish bags.

One might think that libraries are rather low in the list for a country that seems to like reading so much; perhaps two reasons are that many people buy their paperbacks either new or used, and that libraries don’t tend to stock much manga!

I think the “free newspapers” and “coupon magazines” have a lot of overlap as many free newspapers have coupons as a major part, and the quality of the articles leave a lot to be desired, but there are some exceptions, of course. Not that I’m biased for them plugging me, oh no…
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japan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey by JR Tokai Express Research into the use of マンガ喫茶, Manga kissa, or comic cafes. They interviewd 330 people from their monitor pool, 60.6% male, 1.5% in their teens, 17.6% in their twenties, 33.6% in their thirties. 25.5% in their forties, 14.2% in their fifties, and 7.6% in their sixties.

Manga cafes are to be found all over the big cities, many offering very cheap prices (if you don’t overstay your welcome) for access to not just their huge stack of comics and magazines, but also computers, showers, DVDs, and even private cubicles for one or two, if you’re after a cheap and private location for a date.

Q1: Have you ever used a manga cafe? (Sample size=330)

Yes (to Q2)	43.0%
No, but I know what they are	54.2%
Don’t know what they are	2.7%

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Over six days at the end of June DIMSDRIVE Research looked at what people thought about the two key features of the Japanese summer, namely the rainy season and typhoons. 3,198 people from their monitor group completed a private internet-based survey; 53.6% of the sample was female, 2.4% in their teens, 16.6% in their twenties, 34.0% in their thirties, 25.5% in their forties, 12.3% in their fifties and 9.2% in their sixties.

I suppose the overall results of this survey are only notable in their predictability that people dislike bad weather! I too dislike the rainy season, but I’ve been lucky enough to avoid most typhoons; there was one dangerous one two years ago that nearly flooded a river rather too close to my flat, but other than that, back home a good Atlantic gale is much more ferocious than the average, or even the stronger than average typhoons that blow over Japan.
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