世論 What Japan Thinks

I have been a bit worried that my previous article on Doudou Diene’s report may have been seen as being just a bit too negative, so to perhaps redress the balance, I have decided to write this article.

Recently, I have had the pleasure of listening to I Yonbo’s music and talk (sorry, no link – I can’t find anything in English on him!). He has recently become widely known throughout Japan due to him supplying some of the music for the stupidly popular 冬のソナタ, Winter Sonata, a soppy Korean drama starring the soppy Harry Potter-esque Bae Yong Jun.
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japan.internet.com recently released an opinion poll, performed in conjuction with goo Research, to see what people thought about the novelisation (or novelization, if you prefer) of blogs and other web contents. 1,013 people completed their internet-based questionnaire, with 60.4% female. 27.0% of the respondents were in their twenties, 42.7% in their thirties, 23.9% in their forties, and 6.4% in their fifties.

When a similar survey was carried out a year ago, during the height of the “Densha Otoko” boom, 35.0% of the people surveyed then said they would want to buy a novelisation of a blog.

I can’t say I’ve come across any blogs I’d like to see as a book, although having said that I don’t follow any regular diary-like narrative-based blogs, which would seem to be the best material for making into a book.
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NEPRO JAPAN recently published an interesting survey on how mobile phones have changed users’ lives. They got replies from 4,610 people who answered a questionnaire available for one day at the start of February through iMode, vodafone live! and EZweb mobile phone service menus. The sample consisted of 40% male, 4% in their teens, 38% in their twenties, 41% in their thirties, and 17% aged forty and over.

Some of the figures are quite amazing, such as one in four spending over three hours a day on their phone. However, when you consider that the average commute for people is over 90 minutes per day (must find exact figures – I’ve just seen an in-train poster stating that statistic) and many people will be busy mailing or gaming (when they aren’t sleeping), the hours soon add up.

Question 3, on whether people use a fixed or a mobile line at home may very well be biased by people who still live at home but do not pay the fixed line phone bill.

Note also that this survey is self-selecting through a mobile phone menu, so people who only spend a couple of minutes per day on the phone are most unlikely to ever have seen this questionnaire!
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I was very pleased to find this very web site had been selected by Japanzine as one of “The Best of Japan on the Web”. Thank you very much for that, and I hope some of the people finding me through that link decide to stick around.

Now the apology – I’ve been a bit ill the last few days, so I’ve been unable to update on my usual daily schedule. Hopefully I’m OK now and I can get back to regular updates. I’ve got a few interesting ones in the pipeline, as well as some that are not quite so interesting, but I hope have value to someone! This slight layoff couldn’t have been worse timed, I don’t think; in addition to the best of award above, I also got linked via some list of links a couple of days ago, but I’ve had no new material for all my new viewers. Bottoms.

MyVoice carried out a survey at the start of February to find out about the image of various mobile phone companies. This is the fifth time they have carried out this survey, but the first time I have translated one! They interviewed 16,172 members of their MyVoice community by means of an internet questionnaire. 46% of the sample was male, 3% teenagers, 24% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 24% in their forties, and 11% in their fifties.

vodafone really has a terrible reputation in Japan, certianly amongst the English speaking community, mainly based around their reception coverage, as they apparently measure reception at the city office of each district in Japan, and if they get a signal there they claim to have coverage for the whole district, or so I have heard.

Note that this survey was taken before the recent news about Vodafone pulling out of the Japanese market (probably) broke.
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japan.internet.com carried out a survey amongst 1,094 members of the goo monitor group (the split by sex is not recorded, but the text implies that it was all female) to find out how people use internet hotel reservation services. In the surveyed group, 2.1% were teenagers, 25.2% were in their twenties, 39.5% were in their thirties, 24.3% were in their forties, and 8.9% were in their fifties.

According to an as-yet untranslated by me survey last September on how women obtain word-of-mouth (or should that really be word-of-fingertips?) information from the internet, their top genres for picking up the buzz off the internet were make-up, dining, travel and clothes sites in that order, although four in five never added their own two yen to these sites, and just two percent regularly chimed in.
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MyVoice carried out a survey of its community at the start of this month to see what they thought about self-service (counter service only) coffee shops. 16,311 people, 46% male, completed their internet questionnaire. 3% were teenagers, 24% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 24% in their forties, and 12% fifty years old or over.

Japan is apparently the only country in the world (sorry, I can’t find a definite statement of the statistics) where the Coca-Cola Company make more money (or sell more by volume, or something) with a drink other than their signature fizzy brown bevarage, namely their line of Georgia canned coffee, which are, on the whole, either over-sugary, over-milky (a friend got kidney stones from drinking six or eight cans a day and hardly any other liquids, bar beer) or over-bitter for my taste.

Also note that in Japan there is little tradition of carrying out a cup of coffee from a shop. Even around Starbucks, almost no-one will drink their coffee anywhere bar the shop; I personally can only recall one time seeing a Japanese person carrying a coffee cup onto a train, for instance.

Finally, most coffee shops are still smoking. Starbucks is non-smoking throughout (except for seating outside, if available), but other chains often have perhaps only have a quarter or less reserved for non-smokers, and little effective segregation. However, note the last question, about why people like their particular favourite chain – only 9.5% choose smoking segregation (all non-smoking was not an option) as a plus, at most just a fifth of the Starbucks fans, versus 9% who choose that smoking is allowed, which is again just about a fifth of those with a favourite other than Starbucks.

I seem to have written far too much about Starbucks already! I’m much more a tea and table service man myself.
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japan.internet.com released a short survey, carried out at the start of February in conjunction with goo Research to find out about how people use web mail services. This is the tenth time they have performed this survey, once every month since May 2005. 1,090 people, 46.8% male, from up and down the country completed the internet-based questionnaire. 2.1% were teenagers, 22.5% were in their twenties, 40.6% were in their thirties, 24.3% were in their forties, 7.4% in their fifties, and just 3.0% aged sixty or over.

Given that according to another survey, one in five Japanese has tried dating sites, I find that only 2% have used a web mail address for this purpose suprising. Perhaps the rest used their mobile phones or an alternative form of aliasing; my main provider, for instance, offers up to five aliases, selectable from not just standard @isp.ne.jp, but vanity ones like @teabreak.jp. Or perhaps people just lied more here!

Note that when the provider usage statistics below are compared to an earlier survey on brand image, goo performs better here than its brand image suggests, and Hotmail worse.
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Recently MyVoice performed a timely survey on aspects of hay fever, interviewing 16,259 people, 54% female, by means of a survey of their internet monitor group. In the sample there were 3% teenagers, 23% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 24% in their forties, and 12% in their fifties.

The largest cause of hay fever in Japan is cedar trees, but luckily I am mostly resistant to that, although back in the UK I used to have pretty serious problems with rapeseed (canola) pollen.

In question six there appears 甜茶, tencha, which is apparently some kind of rose-based Chinese herbal tea that I had never heard of, yet over one in five Japanese sufferers drink to alleviate their symptoms.

Another quite popular curative, 凍頂烏龍茶, touchou oolong tea (which has a different Chinese pronounciation, but I can’t find a reference to it) is served hot at one of my favourite restaurants, and it really is a very relaxing digestive after a big meal, but I know nothing about any presumed rhinitis-related benefits!

Q1: Do you suffer from hay fever? (Sample size=16,259)

Yes, serious hay fever	12.0%
Yes, mild hay fever	26.5%
Used to have it but not now	8.5%
Never had hay fever	43.0%
Don’t know what hay fever is	10.1%

Q2: When did you first become aware of having hay fever? (Sample size=either 6,259 or 7,641 approximately, hay fever sufferers)

This year	0.4%
Last year	8.2%
Two or three years ago	17.5%
Four or five years ago	17.2%
Six to ten years ago	17.0%
Over ten years ago	32.1%
Can’t remember	7.0%
No answer	0.7%

Note that since this survey took place at the start of February, before the pollen season properly starts, the number of new sufferers for this year would naturally be very low. However, the 8.2% breaking out last year is a bit of a worrying figure.

Q3: Where or what do you consult for information regarding hay fever? (Sample size=either 6,259 or 7,641 approximately, hay fever sufferers, multiple answer)

Television programs	78.2%
Internet	42.9%
Newspaper column	34.5%
Doctor or pharmacy	33.7%
Word-of-mouth from friends	30.9%
Magazine column	16.4%
Radio program	5.2%
Specialist books	3.1%
Other	2.9%
No answer	1.1%

Q4: What hay fever symptoms are you afflicted by? (Sample size=either 6,259 or 7,641 approximately, hay fever sufferers, multiple answer)

Runny nose	83.3%
Itchy eyes	80.4%
Sneezing	66.9%
Stuffed nose	54.2%
Wooly head	34.3%
Bloodshot eyes	30.1%
Sore throat	19.4%
Sore eyes	16.6%
Headache	14.8%
Itchy all over	10.7%
Coughing	10.4%
Other	2.9%
No answer	1.4%

Q5: What measures do you take to avoid or reduce hay fever symptoms? (Sample size=either 6,259 or 7,641 approximately, hay fever sufferers, multiple answer)

Over-the-counter eyewash, eyedrops	42.0%
Mask	39.7%
Prescription medicine	36.4%
Sweets or gum	31.5%
Over-the-counter internal medicines	28.9%
Over-the-counter nasal sprays or drops	24.8%
Anti-hay fever food and drink	20.5%
Air filter	19.8%
Over-the-counter gargle solution	10.9%
Glasses or goggles	8.5%
Lotion-impregnated tissues	7.7%
Aromatherapy	3.2%
Clothes drier	3.0%
Other over-the-counter medicine	1.9%
Laser treatment	0.7%
Other	3.1%
Don’t use anything in particular	9.8%
No answer	1.3%

Q6: What food or drink do you take to avoid or reduce hay fever symptoms? (Sample size=either 6,259 or 7,641 approximately, hay fever sufferers, multiple answer)

Yogurt or other lactic acid drinks	27.3%
Tencha	22.7%
Sweets or gum	17.4%
Natto	10.3%
Herb tea	7.7%
Shiso leaves, seeds or juice	7.7%
Green vegetables	5.5%
凍頂烏龍茶 Touchou oolong tea	5.1%
Other teas not specifically mentioned	4.8%
Anti-hay fever cool drinks	4.7%
Moromi or apple vinegar, etc	4.2%
Aojiru	3.0%
Guava tea	3.0%
Blue fish	2.4%
Benifuuki tea	1.0%
Tomato skins	1.0%
Other	2.5%
Nothing in particular	41.2%
No answer	2.1%

I got the following message through another mailing list, so I’ll pass this on to anyone interested out there.

There is a questionnaire that has been authored by Katrin Kalb, a German Master Thesis student of Sophia University. The results of the thesis will be made available to the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) to improve travel and tourism in Japan.

This is YOUR chance to make a difference for future travellers (including you) Make your observations and concerns heard. For a meaningful statistical evaluation, the student needs at least 300 responses, so please help by filling it out (will take 10 minutes) and forward it to people who you think can answer the questions.

Unfortunately the group of people being questioned is somewhat limited: western foreigners living for duration of at least 7 months in Japan (where at least three months should have been passed when completing the
questionnaire). You, or your partner should have a salaried (that is stable) income.

http://www.befrager.de/befragung.aspx?projekt=306

The URL is German, but the questionnaire is in English.

Note that there is also a German version of the questionnaire available. There does seem to be a small prize draw if you leave your email address after completing the survey.