世論 What Japan Thinks

I’ve often heard about how a lot of companies, Toyota in particular, employ a good number of foreign workers – Toyota is heavily into employing South American staff – but I’d never seen any figures to back up these assertions. There are also suggestions that a lot of firms in the Toyota supply chain, for instance, employ illegals, but I suspect this is purely (mainly?) rumour and speculation.

However, today I saw some data on a large American-owned multinational with manufacturing facilities in Japan (printed matter, so no web link to the article, and the company name is omitted just in case…) that said that within Japan 16% of their staff (how many people in total are employed by the company in Japan was not noted, and their web site does not say either, but I suspect it is a good few thousand) are non-Japanese; of the 16%, 20% were from the Philippines, 19% were Korean, 16% Indian, 13% from the USA, 12% Chinese and 20% from 22 other countries including Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and Venezuela.

These numbers are interesting and surprising as the total foreign population of Japan is barely 2%, so at first glance this might boast of the company’s commitment to diversity, but the data is also worrying as I wonder how many of these workers are doing a 3K job on the rather dodgy trainee visa scheme? How representative is this company of all the firms in Japan, I know not either.

This is a slightly old survey carried out in March 2001 by the government regarding foreigners learning Japanese. Japanese language classrooms from around the country were sampled, with 581 foreigners aged 16 and above living in Japan responding to the questions. The questioning was, presumably, carried out in the native language of the respondents, but it does say that the question and answer sheet was read and completed by the respondent. Note that especially if local government classes were selected, the level of the classes would be rather low. Due to the lack of Japanese language teachers and the cost of one-to-one lessons, I think that lower-level students would be over-represented in this survey. Amongst my foreign friends and acquaintences, once we pass JLPT 3 level we tend to stop formal study.

First, Japanese language ability in various formal situations was investigated, broken down by length of study of Japanese. It doesn’t say if this means fulltime or nightschool classes, which would make a huge difference to ability, of course.

Q: In which of the following situations can you communicate in Japanese?

	All	Less than one year	One to two years	More than two years
Talking to doctor about illness	63.7%	56.2%	78.1%	88.8%
Discussions/questions with council officials, etc	50.6%	43.2%	63.5%	76.3%
Reading notices from schools or council, etc	48.9%	43.2%	56.3%	71.3%
Writing a CV	37.5%	33.5%	45.8%	47.5%
Reading work documents	28.7%	25.4%	36.5%	40.0%

Reading and writing ability seems rather too high!

Next, five situations where Japanese may be needed were rated in degrees from “absolutely essential”, “needed”, and so on down to presumably “not needed at all”. Note, this is a summary of a full survey, so a lot of detail is omitted.

Q: Do you think Japanese ability is absolutely essential in the following situations?

Exchanging greetings	60.4%
Telephoning a Japanese person	50.3%
Asking for directions	48.4%
Talking to doctor about illness	47.3%
Writing addressing in kanji	44.2%

Q: Can you do the following reading tasks?

	All	Read hiragana	Read katakana	Read romaji	Can’t read kanji but understand the meaning	Can read some kanji	Can read kanji	Can read and understand kanji	Can’t read anything	No answer
All	581	84.3%	75.2%	51.5%	15.0%	48.5%	12.9%	19.6%	1.9%	1.4%
<1 year study	370	85.4%	74.9%	54.9%	17.6%	47.0%	11.1%	16.5%	1.9%	0.5%
1-2 years study	96	88.5%	79.2%	50.0%	11.5%	47.9%	19.8%	22.9%	2.1%
>2 years study	80	86.3%	85.0%	43.8%	7.5%	66.3%	15.0%	32.5%	1.3%

I hope that table makes sense! I think if there had been some more distiction made between understanding kanji and reading (ie, knowing the Japanese pronounciation) kanji it would have been better, as Chinese (and Koreans to some extent) have a distinct advantage over other foreigners in that respect.

Q: Can you do the following writing tasks?

	All	Write hiragana	Write katakana	Write romaji	Write a few kanji	Can’t write enough kanji by hand but can when using word processor	Write sufficient kanji	Can’t write at all	No answer
All	581	84.0%	73.7%	49.1%	49.4%	9.3%	17.6%	2.9%	1.4%
<1 year study	370	84.6%	74.1%	51.9%	45.9%	7.8%	17.8%	2.4%	0.5%
1-2 years study	96	89.6%	78.1%	50.0%	57.3%	11.5%	17.7%	3.1%	1.0%
>2 years study	80	86.3%	78.8%	43.8%	68.8%	11.3%	16.3%	1.3%	1.3%

Q: What do you hope will be the outcome of your studies? (Multiple answers, top five answers only presented)

Become able to speak Japanese	59.0%
Can increase number of friends	55.9%
Be able to get to know neighbours	36.8%
Can understand TV programs better than before	32.2%
Be able to write my name	31.5%

Q: How will you use the results of your studies? (Multiple answers, top five answers only presented) Not sure on the exact difference between this and the last question!

Speak Japanese	71.1%
Study lifestyle and culture	54.2%
Increase number of friends	47.7%
Talk with everyone	43.7%
Deepen understanding of the differences in culture and viewpoint	30.8%

Uggh, that was impossible to translate! I had to skip the last couple of tables as they made very little sense to me. There looks as if there ought to have been another document describing the survey questions in more details, but I can’t see it at all.

iShare performed this survey at the start of October where 1,525 users (52.9% female, ages from teenagers to those in their forties) of the CLUB BBQ mail service responded about their use of Social Network Services (SNS) and other web-based introduction services. In Japan, the term deai-kei, 出会い系 site, dating-related site, has a slightly dodgy meaning, I think, so perhaps that caused some of the respondents to be more reserved about their answers to the questions. There is also the suggestion of enjo-kousai associated with deai-kei, a Japanese euphemism for child prosititution, basically. SNS is not quite so well-known a term, so there is maybe not yet any particular stigma attached to it. However, I don’t know how much, or even whether or not, of a dating scene there might be at these SNS sites.

Also note that percentages listed to one decimal place are accurate figures, but those without decimal places are read directly off the graphs so are a bit inaccurate. Money also features in many of the surveys, as there are various rumours about gold-diggers and others out to scam people on dating sites.

Q1: Have you used a dating web site service?

Yes	18.7%
No	81.3%

Q2: For those of you that answered Yes in Q1, what was the outcome? (Choose one only)

Met in real-life and became friends	31.4%
Didn’t meet anyone	26.0%
Didn’t meet, but became e-mail friends	19.5%
Met in real-life and became lovers	10%
Met in real-life but was disappointed	5%
It got messy…	2%
Got money	0%

The various Social Network Services like mixi and GREE can be considered as “dating sites” in a rather broad sense. However, without an invitation from an existing member, these SNSes cannot be used.

Those in their twenties are the biggest user groups of SNSes, and of those who have heard about them but not got invitations, 31.4% of men and 38.5% of women have instead used dating sites. It looks as if there are lonely friendless people who are using dating sites for blind dates.

Q3: Which of the following applies to you regarding SNS like Mixi, GREE, etc?

	Currently using SNS	Used to use SNS	Know what they are, but never got an invite	Know what they are, but don’t think I want to use them	Don’t know the term SNS
10-19 year olds	15%	1%	3%	20%	59.7%
20-29 year olds	32.0%	2%	5%	22%	37.1%
30-39 year olds	21%	2%	4%	20%	50.5%
40-49 year olds	12%	2%	6%	20%	60.3%

It seems men more than women want to check out dating sites advertised in the spam they may receive, especially if the risk of fraud and the like from unsolicited mail is mitigated. Also, as men get older, the more likely they are to click on the dodgy links in spam mail; the older you get, the lonelier it is!

Q4: Have you ever clicked on a URL in unsolicited mail that you thought was for a dating site?

	Yes
Men 10-19 years old	14.3%
Men 20-29 years old	20.0%
Men 30-39 years old	20.5%
Men 40-49 years old	26.6%
Women 10-19 years old	3.3%
Women 20-29 years old	7.7%
Women 30-39 years old	9.2%
Women 40-49 years old	6.1%

Q5: For those who haven’t used one, do you want to try a dating site?

	Want to use	If there is no danger, I want to use	Don’t want to use	Can’t really say
Men 10-19 years old	0%	22%	58.5%	20%
Men 20-29 years old	4%	20%	61.6%	15%
Men 30-39 years old	1%	20%	71.2%	12%
Men 40-49 years old	0%	22%	63.9%	18%
Women 10-19 years old	0%	20%	71.4%	15%
Women 20-29 years old	1%	12%	78.1%	10%
Women 30-39 years old	1%	11%	83.0%	7%
Women 40-49 years old	1%	11%	83.0%	7%

Looking at those who have used dating sites, again it seems that loneliness is the main factor. Considering that those in their thirties are the heaviest users, and that is the age people get the urge to marriage, there seems a distict correlation. Speaking personally, most of the dating site spam I get seems more to do with bored housewives and prostitutes, not people looking for marriage!

Q: Why do/did you access the dating site?

	10-19 year olds	20-29 year olds	30-39 year olds	40-49 year olds
Want a lover	9.1%	2.1%	23.9%	7.9%
Want to “play”	9.1%	12.8%	8.5%	11.1%
Lonely	27.3%	4.3%	7.0%	0.0%
Want a mail friend	27.3%	27.7%	25.4%	44.4%
Want to banter with someone	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Just had some free time	27.3%	31.9%	19.7%	15.9%
Want to share hobbies	0.0%	14.9%	14.1%	17.5%
Want money	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Others	0.0%	6.4%	1.4%	3.2%

Another fun translation task. I liked how they used さみしい, samishii rather than さびしい, sabishii for lonely, a rather cute girly spelling of the word, even when they were describing middle-aged men.

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

NTV did a survey on a number of hot topics in the news right now – a lot of questions, but not much detail, so the exact meaning of some of the answers is up for debate. They carries out the survey from the 14th to 16th of this month, asking 1000 people but only getting 479 sets of replies, so it’s a bit of a small sample.

Q11: The Food Safety Commission presented a report that USA beef imports were basically safe, and would want to see imports restarted. Do you support resuming USA beef imports?

Support	43.0%
Don’t support	49.3%
Don’t know, no answer	7.7%

Q12: Rakuten has been buying TBS shares, and has proposed management integration. What do you think about TBS and Rakuten’s management integration?

By combining broadcast and (internet-based) transmission, I have expectations of new growth	20.5%
TBS’s side says it’s sudden, but I want to see change in the future	28.4%
I worry whether public (free-to-air?) broadcast will continue	28.8%
Others	4.6%
Don’t know, no answer	17.8%

Q13: Yoshiaki Murakami, against the wishes of the Hanshin Railways management ranks, in order to raise the company valuation, has proposed to float the subsiduary Hanshin Tigers baseball team on the stock market. Do you support this proposal?

Support	21.7%
Oppose	55.3%
Don’t know, no answer	23.0%

This is a question that frurstrates me a bit – I know the majority seem opposed to the idea, but why? Is there a general opposition to the idea of floating sports teams on the stock market, or is there opposition to Murakami personally, or is it just reluctance in the face of rapid change?

Q14: Tatsunori Hara has been appointed the new manager of the Giants baseball team. Do you think baseball will become interesting next year?

I think it will become interesting	49.7%
I don’t think it will become interesting	34.2%
Don’t know, no answer	16.1%

There seems an implication in this question that this year’s weak Giants automatically made the season dull. Although they are the top team in terms of support in Japan, the question seems loaded to me.

Q15: Do you think the Japanese economy will continue to improve?

I think so	36.5%
I don’t think so	55.7%
Don’t know, no answer	7.7%

Finished! A bit of a mixed bag there, but interesting opinions on quite a few of the burning issues. Thanks for reading all the way through.

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

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

NTV did a survey on a number of hot topics in the news right now – a lot of questions, but not much detail, so the exact meaning of some of the answers is up for debate. They carries out the survey from the 14th to 16th of this month, asking 1000 people but only getting 479 sets of replies, so it’s a bit of a small sample.

Q6: The Koizumi cabinet has re-submitted their Post Office privatisation bill for splitting it into four companies and has it passed into law. Do you support this establishment of the bill? (Bad, possibly wrong translation!)

Support it	61.8%
Don’t support it	26.9%
Don’t know, no answer	11.3%

Q7: Of the 13 former LDP members who voted against the Post Office privatisation proposals in July, 11 of them voted in favour this time. Do you support the actions of these 11 who changed their votes?

Support their actions	24.2%
Don’t support their actions	64.7%
Don’t know, no answer	11.1%

Q8: There is less than one year to go until Koizumi retires from leadership of the LDP. What would you most want him to accoplish during this time?

Resolve North Korea and kidnapping problems	17.5%
Civil service reform	8.4%
Financial and taxation reform	20.5%
Public financial institutions merger or abolishment	3.3%
Pensions review	42.2%
Others	4.6%
Don’t know, no answer	3.6%

Q9: There are about 600 GSDF troops deployed in Samawah, Iraq until the 14th of December. Please tell me your opinion about the GSDP deployment.

Deployment should be extended	21.1%
Should withdraw in December	61.4%
Should withdraw now	13.8%
Don’t know, no answer	3.8%

Q10: On the 17th of October is the Yasukuni Shrine Autumn Festival, and there is the view that Koizumi may very well attend. Do you support Koizumi woshipping there?

Support him	47.6%
Don’t support him	45.5%
Don’t know, no answer	6.9%

A slight diversion – the Yasukuni Shrine has perhaps two aspects to it. The first is the enshrinement of Class A war criminals, which is the topic that most people seem to focus upon, but to me it seems very much to hinge on a technicality or two, and as such does not particulary interest me, especially as the other aspect is that the shrine is run by, apparently, a bunch of right-wing militaristic nut jobs, not to put too fine a point on it. Friends who have visited have noted that the text of many of the exhibits, in both English and Japanese, glorify the Second World War and the earlier East Asian adventures whilst glossing over, if not outright ignoring the evil that was committed in the process. A visit to their English homepage, for instance, reveals unapologetic nonsense like this, from their FAQ:

There were also 1,068 “Martyrs of Showa” who were cruelly and unjustly tried as war criminals by a sham-like tribunal of the Allied forces (United States, England, the Netherlands, China and others).

Can you really imagine a German leader, say, visiting a church that had a sign talking about how Goering was unfairly accused, or even a British leader visiting (in a not really official, honest, Guv kind of way) that statue of Bomber Harris near Trafalgar Square?

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

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

NTV did a survey on a number of hot topics in the news right now – a lot of questions, but not much detail, so the exact meaning of some of the answers is up for debate. They carries out the survey from the 14th to 16th of this month, asking 1000 people but only getting 479 sets of replies, so it’s a bit of a small sample.

Q1: Do you support the Koizumi cabinet?

Yes	62.2%
No	29.4%
Don’t know, no answer	8.4%

Q2: For those answering YES in Q1, why do you support his cabinet?

Because I have expections for the cabinet members	2.7%
Because I can trust Koizumi’s character	21.5%
Because it’s the cabinet of the party I suppose	12.1%
Because I have expections for the policies	11.4%
Because I can expect reform	21.8%
Because there’s no-one else to do the job	21.8%
No particular reason	5.7%
Others	2.4%
Don’t know, no answer	0.7%

Q2: For those answering NO in Q1, why do you not support his cabinet?

Because I have no expections for the cabinet members	9.2%
Because I can’t trust Koizumi’s character	29.1%
Because it’s not the cabinet of the party I suppose	19.2%
Because I don’t have expections for the policies	22.0%
Because there’s no leadership	1.4%
No particular reason	4.3%
Others	13.5%
Don’t know, no answer	1.4%

Q4: Please tell me which party you support. If you don’t support any party, choose which you have strong feelings for.

LDP	46.1%
DPJ	19.0%
New Komeito	4.0%
Communists	2.7%
SDP	2.9%
People’s New Party	0.0%
New Party Nippon	0.2%
New Party Daichi	0.2%
Others	0.4%
I don’t support any part	21.9%
Don’t know, no answer	2.5%

Q5: The DPJ have selected Maehara as their new leader. Do you support Maehara’s leadership of the DPJ?

Greatly support	17.5%
Support to some extent	37.6%
Don’t really support	32.4%
Don’t support at all	9.6%
Don’t know, no answer	2.9%

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

I found a blog reporting a Yahoo! headline supplied by the Mainichi from a press release from the private railway companies of Japan’s umbrella organisation, so excuse the fourth-handedness of the whole story. 6000 people were questioned to find out their views on bad manners on board. So, without further ado, first some of the complaints that didn’t quite make the top grade:

• Not following telephone manners (20%)
• Not following the rules when getting on and off (9%)
• Sitting on the floor
• Being noisy in the train
• Leaky headphones
• Putting on makeup
• Luggage in the way
• Ciggies (what aspect?)
• Eating and drinking on board

The worst three, gathering the majority of the votes were all to do with sitting down.

• Sitting with legs akimbo
• Young or fit people in the priority seats
• Not squeezing up when the bench seat is almost full

My pet hate is similar to the last one, people who don’t move away from the doors when they board.

UPDATE: This is an updated version of the original story, as I ended up with a stupidly high ranking in MSN Search and was getting far too many hits from dubious searchs! I also had an email about the article from DIMSDRIVE research, and I felt that the tone of the original article could be perceived as tarnishing the reputation of that company, so I pulled the story and replaced it with this version.

Last month DIMSDRIVE research carried out this survey to find out what Japanese citizens wore during the long hot summer nights. The sample size was 6,904 people with just over 60% female.
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NEOPRO JAPAN Mobile Report issue 26 recently published a report on accessing web sites and documents designed for PC use, or at least not designed with mobile phone access in mind. The average browser on a mobile phone is limited by various constraints, not just by the obvious limitation of screen size, but also by page data length – two to five kilobytes seems the usual limit – and by picture complexity and formats, to name a couple of other restrictions. There has been TV advertising for mobiles that can get round this limitation, but the question is are people interested in using these features? There’s also the supplementary question about whether or not once the access limitation is got round, is it actually practical to use your mobile to read the BBC? This issue is not addressed, however.

The survey was conducted on September the 8th and 9th through the iMode, Vodafone live! and EZweb public sites with some sort of prize promotion to get respondents. 4,216 people completed the self-selecting survey, 60% female, with 38% and 41% in their twenties and thirties respectively.

Q1: Would it be useful if you could view PC-facing web sites or files on your mobile phone?

Really useful	46%
Useful	34%
Perhaps, perhaps not	10%
Useful, but I wouldn’t use	8%
Other	1%
No answer	1%

Q2: Have you ever downloaded software to allow you to view PC-facing web sites or files on your mobile?

No, but I want to try it	58%
No, and have no interest	17%
Yes, a free download	15%
No, as my mobile phone already has that feature built-in	4%
Yes, a paid download	3%
Other	2%
No answer	1%

Q3: If you could view PC-facing web sites on your mobile, what sort of sites would you want to use? (Multiple answer)

News, maps, weather	41%
Auctions	37%
Fortune-telling or games	34%
Bulletin board reading and writing	33%
Others	32%
Railway info search	21%
Blogs	20%
Chat	15%
Social networking site	8%

Q4: Which of the following have you viewed, or would like to view, on your mobile phone? (Multiple answer)

PC mail	41%
Others	32%
Excel files	31%
Word files	30%
PDF files	14%
PowerPoint files	13%

BCN, some sort of umbrella organisation for small computer and electronic goods stores, performed this survey where they questioned 2,547 people, 57.2% male, and with an age profile of 14.5% under 30, 32.4% in their thirties, 34.5% in their forties, 13.2% in their fifties, and 5.3% over 60; and a bonus 0.1% unsure of how old. The PC usage history was perhaps also a bit top-heavy in veterans, 17.9% with less than 5 years, 39.8% between 5 and 10 years, 19.7% between 10 and 15 years, 9.4% between 15 and 20 years, and 13.1% over 20 years, which is quite stunning considering the PC itself is barely over 20 years old!
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