世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com, in conjuction with JR Tokai Express Research, investigated how people use television stations’ web sites; both PC-centric and mobile phone-targetted sites were included. By means of an internet-based questionnaire, they obtained the opinions of 317 employed persons from all over the country; 71.3% were male, 22.1% in their twenties, 43.5% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 7.6% in their fifties, and 1.6% sixty or over.

This survey, I feel, poses more questions than it answers. Which programs’ sub-sites within each channel’s offering are people choosing to view? Getting program details covers too broad a ground from just getting a synopsis for a movie to checking out some of the factual (or not quite so factual, as the case may be) information presented by a show after the broadcast. Why did Q1SQ2 not investigate if people gave feedback to shows or played web site games? What about different usage patterns for PC-based and mobile-based access? I suspect these answers may be obtained if one is willing to part with cash, though!
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Just thought I’d point out that I’ve just started using Performancing Metrics to help me analyse what’s going on here a bit better. It looks interesting (and free!), and I will be leaving my stats publicly readable – the new Performancing button in the bottom left should take you to the same statistics page. I think that should work anyway!

UPDATE: The publicly-viewable portion of the Performancing Metrics in not currently in operation, as it is still being tested. There is a public RSS feed, but it’s probably not very interesting to look at!

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

I see that I attracted a few readers in a LiveJournal kimono forum, so rather than creating a LiveJournal account to reply privately to their questions, I’ll post an update here with some more detailed statistics from the same report that I translated earlier this week.

One other question they had was from the final question about the kimono’s image, as to what “Japaneseness” was. This was my translation of 日本人らしい, nihonjinrashii, which translates more literally to “looking like a Japanese person”.

On a personal note, getting picked up by these kimono wearers (as it were) is the sort of thing that makes me feel all this blogging is worthwhile. I’ve learnt about western kimono fans and they’ve learnt a bit more about how the Japanese view what is their hobby. If there are any readers out there with a pet subject that they’d like to hear more about, please don’t hesitate to ask me and I’ll see what I can find. I’m fascinated by Japanese bowel movements (yes, honestly, but not in that way) or the lack thereof, but I’m yet to find a good survey regarding it.
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japan.internet.com, in conjunction with a new-to-me company Cross Marketing Inc (ugh, Flash-based survey reports!), performed a survey of 300 mobile phone users (exactly 50:50 male and female) at the start of this month to find out what habits they had regarding mobile phones. 17.3% of the respondents were in their teens (in fact, aged 18 or 19 only), and each of the four decades of age from twenties to fifties were represented by 20.7% of the sample size.

I previously presented another survey that looked at the use of extra features of a mobile phone, but the percentages are quite different between the two. More investigation may be needed to discover why this discrepency has occured, although I wonder if the sample selection method is the problem. The earlier survey was a self-selecting one that would tend to attract heavy users, I suspect, but for this one, although the respondent selection method is not described, given the small survey size and the balanced age grouping, I suspect there is a much more rigourous selection process.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

DIMSDRIVE Research recently performed a survey to find out what people thought about kimonos. Over one week at the end of January, they got 7,607 people, 60.4% female, from their internet monitor group to reply to the questionnaire. 1.6% of the respondents were in their teens, 19.6% in their twenties, 36.6% in their thirties, 26.2% in their forties, 11.9% in their fifties, and 4.1% sixty and over.

This second half sees some more interesting statistics. Most people don’t buy their own kimono, but I would like to know why. Is it a coming of age present? A wedding present? Do they get them new or as hand-me-downs?

It is also interesting how the kimono’s image is foremostly positive, with the top two answers praising it, but then followed by four very negative images.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

DIMSDRIVE Research recently performed a survey to find out what people thought about kimonos. Over one week at the end of January, they got 7,607 people, 60.4% female, from their internet monitor group to reply to the questionnaire. 1.6% of the respondents were in their teens, 19.6% in their twenties, 36.6% in their thirties, 26.2% in their forties, 11.9% in their fifties, and 4.1% sixty and over.

Note that I believe that the 浴衣 yukata and 甚平 jinbei, the cheap summer wear that resembles just a fancy dressing gown more than a formal item of clothing, is excluded from this survey; they are focusing on the posh ceremonial item here. I base this supposition on “fireworks display” or “summer festival” not being listed as answers to the question on the place that people last wore one, as at these two places one regularly sees many young people kitted out in cheap and colourful loose cotton garments.

Personally, I’ve never worn a kimono nor have any great urge to wear one, although I should compare the results of this survey with my views on kilts. I own a kilt, which I’ve worn to three weddings here in Japan, and it always goes down well with the natives. In deference to Japan, and betraying my heritage, I do wear Hello Kitty boxers underneath…

This survey will be split into two parts, published today and tomorrow.
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During one week towards the end of January infoPLANT carried out a survey, via their usual means of an option in the DoCoMo iMode menuing system, of 7,977 people from all over the country, 63.5% female, to find out their opinions regarding televisions.

Looking at the results, it seems that most people go to shops to get televisions sold to them; the in-store information is the most important reference for most people, and display quality and price are what makes the deal, both these factors being ones that the salespeople are more than able to convey face-to-face.
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infoPLANT carried out a survey over a week at the end of January to find out what people thought regarding pre-cooked frozen foodstuffs. From the explanations within, this covers a wide spectrum covering both complete meals and individual side dishes. I do not believe that chilled foods are covered by this survey.

A self-selecting sample of 8,578 people, 66.4% female, completed a survey presented through the DoCoMo iMode menuing system. 3% were in their teens, 37% in their twenties, 43% in their thirties, 16% in their forties, and just 2% fifty or older.

This is probably about the most dull survey I have ever translated, so I apologise for that!

Notice that over four in five chose taste as the most important factor, whilst only a quarter stated taste as a reason for using them, suggesting that Japanese consumers are not particularly impressed by the taste of their frozen foods.

In Q2 it was seen that the over fifty group tended more to buy in bulk, and that is reflected in this question where the same demographic noted the highest importance in the best before date. Over fifty year old women also recorded the highest percentage in the safety, maker or brand image, and preparation method questions.
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japan.internet.com, in conjunction with goo Research, interviewed at the start of this month by means of a web-based survey 1,094 people from all over the country to find out about how they use USB flash memory, as well as other issues surrounding moving data between PCs. 55.6% of the respondents were female, and 2.7% were teenaged, 21.9% in their twneties, 42.2% in their thirties, 22.9% in their forties, 8.3% in their fifties, and just 1.8% sixty or older.

Last year they also carried out a similar survey, so there will be some extra information about how the marketplace has changed in just a year.

I personally prefer flash memory (SD cards, in fact) as the quickest and easiest way, assuming I can fit all the data on the card. Burning CDs is just a pain and not reusable, and my floppy drive only ever sees action as a boot device for Linux! I also have a Sony NW-A300 hard drive player handy, but the lack of spare USB cables limits its usefulness as a transfer device.
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In my quest to bring you the rather more obscure and slighly weird surveys of Japanese public opinion, here comes an odd report from DIMSDRIVE Research, who asked 4,551 Japanese of all ages what their favourite meat on a yakiniku (grilled meat) menu was. 44.7% of those who replied to their internet-based questionnaire were male. This survey was carried out last July.

As a vegetarian myself, I have to go for the “None of the above” option. I also must resist saying anything about the fact that so many young Japanese women seem to love nothing more than a bit of tongue. Oh, and if you too want to get away from meat and get some decent tofu and other soy-based foodstuffs, and live in the Kansai area, I hearily recommend “Mame no Hatake” and “Seed’s Kitchen” as semi-organic, semi-veggie eateries. The “Mame no Hatake” buffet, in particular, is quite amazing value, 1,900 yen for a high-quality all-you-can-eat buffet.
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