世論 What Japan Thinks

This survey from goo Ranking looks at what expectations Japanese have for fellow Japanese English conversation teachers – note that this means that the survey refers to adult learners, not school children.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 13th of March 2012 1,055 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.2% of the sample were female, 16.9% in their twenties, 41.7% in their thirties, and 41.4% in their forties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Sort-of related, here’s a very interesting quote from the Osaka City governer on what he expects from English teachers in schools – I like the thought, but I don’t think teachers can just change subjects like that:

Teaching is also a form of status. There are many English teachers incapable of English. On the other hand, they have teachers who’ve come back from living in the United States teaching social studies. That’s all they have a license for. Next to the teachers fluent in English are the English teachers who can’t speak English at all, and the teachers back from the United States teach about the Japanese Diet, of which they know nothing.

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It’s the start of the new financial year, which also means that it’s the mass intake of new recruits at the workplace, which further means that goo Ranking will conduct its annual look at what behaviour by new recruits do people want to warn them about.

Demographics

Over the 29th of February and the 1st of March 2012 1,175 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.4% of the sample were female, 10.0% in their teens, 16.5% in their twenties, 29.3% in their thirties, 24.1% in their forties, 10.6% in their fifties, and 9.5% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.
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NRC, Nippon Research Centre, a member of Gallup International Association, recently published the results of a shallow but broad survey on recent news topics.

Demographics

Between the 29th of February and the 12th of March 2012 1,200 people between the ages of 15 and 79 randomly selected from a geographically-sorted residents database were asked to complete a survey, the results of which were weighed by overall national demographics. 50.7% of the sample were female, 6.3% in their teens, 32.9% in their twenties or thirties, 33.8% in their forties or fifties, and 27.0% in their sixties or seventies.

To explain a few of the topics that you might be unfamiliar with, in Q6 currently, if a female member of the royal family or one of the two other aristocratic families marries a commoner, she becomes a commoner too. Given the lack of males in the current line of succession, the plan is that if one of the females marries, her husband will join the royal family. This is separate from the question of a female emperor – I think the current system allows it, but male heirs take priority.

Q8, direct elections for the prime minister, would need the constitution to be amended, and I thought a fundamental feature of any parliamentary system was that the prime minister is chosen by the elected members of the chamber. Are there countries where such elections are held?

Q9, One Osaka, is the most important grassroots political movement, nay revolution, in Japan today. The charismatic leader, Toru Hashimoto, an ex-lawyer and TV celeb, actually has a vision, and recent opinion polls in the Osaka area have indicated that his party (which still has no national policy documents, let alone candidates) could win around 80% of the seats. Ampontan is quite the fan, and has many articles on the man, each much more informative that all the professional English-language press put together.
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This is the rather disappointing (from my point of view) results from a recent survey by goo Research, their third regular survey into internet advertising, reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 27th of March 2012 1,078 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 17.8% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.8% aged fifty or older. As a short aside, I never understand why half the goo Research demographics report the over fifties and over sixties separately, while the other half, such as this survey, report them together. The other demographic figures are very similar in every non-mobile-targeted survey, so I think one can safely assume that there about 15% in their fifties and 12% aged sixty or over in today’s sample.

Recently my advertising return has been remarkably low for AdSense – all of number of clicks, revenue per click, and CPM rates have some days been so low that it feels like I must be running some utterly inappropriate advertising. Have any of my readers noticed strange or even no adverts appearing?
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goo Ranking had a pair of surveys with a bit of a strange premise, what unfortunate characteristics one had inherited from one’s parents, for both women and men; then what unfortunate characteristics one doesn’t want to pass on to one’s children, again for both women and men.

Demographics

Over the 29th of February and the 1st of March 2012 1,175 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.4% of the sample were female, 10.0% in their teens, 16.5% in their twenties, 29.3% in their thirties, 24.1% in their forties, 10.6% in their fifties, and 9.5% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I’d not want to pass on my general shyness to any prodgeny I may have.
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It’s a while since I’ve had an iShare survey, so I’m not just pleased to see an update, but also to see a rather interesting topic being surveyed, that of child-rearing and doting fathers, with both the husbands rating themselves and wives rating their husbands.

Demographics

Over the 15th and 16th of March 2012 726 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were female, 33.7% in their twenties, 33.2% in their thirties, and 33.1% in their forties, furthermore, all were married with a pre-school child. The survey was conducted in conjunction with Benesse’s Women’s Mall.

If you want to find out how doting a parent you are, Benesse’s Women’s Mall offer a self-test.

In the survey below, I use the Japanese term イクメン, ikumen, which describes men who proactively take part in child-rearing, and who grow up themselves while enjoying child-rearing.
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goo Research recently took a look at keeping in touch with close friends, with the surprising result in the headline reported in japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of March 2012 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 17.8% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

Knowing what I know about Japan, email and telephone being top are not surprising to me, but I was most taken aback by ordinary post coming in third! Thinking more closely, the mixi, Twitter and Facebook figures correlate to the penetration of these SNS within Japan, but I suspect that the old-fashioned post includes New Year postcards, where even I often exchange annual greetings with ex-colleagues who have moved to other divisions within my employer.
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goo Research recently conducted their third regular survey into mobile phone video watching, reported on by japan.internet.com, which revealed that more people are watching video on their mobiles.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 20th of March 2012 1,041 mobile phone-using (including smartphone) members of the goo Research monitor panel answered a mobile-phone based questionnaire. 57.7% of the sample were female, 2.5% in their teens, 24.0% in their twenties, 34.2% in their thirties, 28.0% in their forties, and 11.3% aged fifty or older.

Possibly or possibily not connected to this topic is a new broadcast channel for mobile phones that has been launched this month, called Not-tv. Today at the office someone had a program guide, and there was three channels available, but it seemed mostly Korean dramas, US second-tier series, and the occasional minor Hollywood film. The other 7 or 8 One Seg versions of standard television channels are free to view, but this is 420 yen per month, with, as far as I can see, just a chat channel tacked onto the broadcasts for live interaction with the viewers and listeners.
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goo Ranking recently asked some women for what trivial reasons would they rule a man out for.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 18th of January 2012 1,048 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.6% of the sample were female, 12.3% in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 27.9% in their thirties, 25.8% in their forties, 9.5% in their fifties, and 8.9% in their sixties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample. This survey was for the women only.

For number one, quite a lot of men do this, and the reason is apparently to enable them to dig earwax out of their ears more easily.

I can’t say I’ve seen number ten but it sounds impressive. On the other hand, I’ve seen far too many men slurp pasta like it was ramen!

Sort-of connected to number five, on Friday at a work booze-up my colleagues informed me that my “hai!” (Yes!) intonation is on a rising tone, thus extremely effeminate-sounding…
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A lot of foreigners in Japan reacon that the whole Japanese university system is a big failure, but this survey looked at the things in people’s university life that they felt may have been a little failure.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 18th of January 2012 1,048 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.6% of the sample were female, 12.3% in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 27.9% in their thirties, 25.8% in their forties, 9.5% in their fifties, and 8.9% in their sixties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

It’s a bit sad that it takes until the very last entry to have something about the opposite sex! My only regret from university is that I imagined … no, that’s not really a regret (and rather embarrassing to take any further). Other than that, none really, I suppose, except that I wish I hadn’t been so naive, but as I still am, I suppose I’ll forever be naive!
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