世論 What Japan Thinks

With Washoku, Japanese traditional home cooking, being awarded UNESCO status as an intangible cultural heritage, this recent survey from Kikkoman, a soy sauce maker, into awareness of Washoku provides some useful background data.

Demographics

Over the 27th and 28th of November 2013 830 housewives between the ages of 20 and 69 completed a private internet-based questionnaire. There is no information on how the sample was gathered, but the results were weighted according to the actual demographics of Japan.

As a coincidence, I had this Washoku meal tonight while out:

I’m not sure if the tofu-burger in the middle counts, but the surrounding dishes are certainly Washoku; anti-clockwise from the 5 grain rice we have pickles (yuk, passed them to my wife), seaweed (wakame) and fried tofu miso soup, purple sweet potato salad, konnyaku (double yuk!), hiyakko cold tofu, salad, and gobo (burdock root). Very nice it was too – my review should appear here soon.
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Mobile Marketing Data Labo have been producing some very good surveys recently, and this one – actually pair – is no exception, a look at how satisfied people who purchased smartphones this year are, with the survey being conducted separately for both iPhone users and Android users.

Demographics

For both surveys, between the 25th and 27th of November 2013 1,000 Android purchasers and 1,000 iPhone purchasers completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographic information was presented.

One trend I’ve heard about informally is that there is a movement away from smartphones to owning two devices; a feature phone for voice calls and a tablet for web browsing. I’ve yet to see a survey on this aspect, but hopefully MMD Labo can cover this topic in the coming year.
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goo Ranking recently performed a survey looking at what love hotel names people find strange. Love hotels can be found all over Japan, and as the name suggests, they are for use by dating couples wanting a place away from their parents, couples wanting a night out, or indeed for illicit relationships; I should try to dig up figures on the sorts of uses they get put to.

Demographics

The survey was conducted between the 4th and 8th of October 2013 where 1,074 people completed a private web-based questionnaire. 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’ve stayed here:

The video below is of room 310 at the Feigning Ignorance Beaver Legend, although there is a distinct lack of feigning or otherwise ignorant beavers on display…

Googling the Japanese names should bring up more information about the places, should a name take your fancy. Note that all the translations are mine so may differ from their real English name, if they have one.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by goo Research into traveller-oriented empty room matching services, and little recognition was registered; it is not clear from the question wording, however, whether they dropped the best-known brand name along with the rather wordy survey title.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of November 2013 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.9% of the sample were male, 14.0% in their teens, 15.2% in their twenties, 21.8% in their thirties, 17.5% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 16.8% aged sixty or older.

This year I am on our block of flats’ management committee, and I keep meaning to bring up at the meetings a proposal to change the residents’ contract to outlaw the renting of rooms through Airbnb and similar schemes. Currently, commercial activity that involves visitors is forbidden, and a neighbour in fact fell foul of the regulations as she was running a craft school in her living room, so she was asked to hold her classes elsewhere. I sort-of agree with the Airbnb concept, but NIMBY! I also think it encourages the black economy, so I cannot approve of illegal sub-letting, regulation-dodging and no doubt tax-avoidance. And having foreigners in our building would no doubt bring down the property values.
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@nifty, an internet service provider and portal in Japan, conducted a survey into attitudes regarding Japan. Each question was made as a separate post, so I’ll include links inline.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 21st of November 2013 5,264 members of @Nifty completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographics were provided.

When a friend came over to Japan recently I took him out to a basic restaurant for okonomiyaki (see the pic above), and he loved it. It was a pokey little place with just the one counter/hotplate and 12 seats, the chef cooking right in front of us, ciggie smoke clogging the air, ice-cold beer. He loved it, as did I, as I hadn’t been to such a simple, honest place for so long; before I got married, I used to frequent a local okonomiyaki shop, visiting at least once a week.
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goo Ranking took a look at the features of Twitter users that make people want to stop following.

Demographics

The survey was conducted between the 4th and 8th of October 2013 where 1,074 people completed a private web-based questionnaire. However, goo Ranking have recently revamped their ranking page and have dropped the link to their demographics. 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 generally ignore Twitter, so none of the below bother me! I couldn’t find a nice photo of Twitter, but here are a couple of sweet tweeters instead:

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Yahoo! Japan released on the 25th of November 2013 their top searches in various categories for the year to the end of October. Here I will present just the top five in the various categories.

If you want to find out more about the various things, well, just search for it!
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Well, these figures from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com were surprising to me at least, in this the third regular look at text communication.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of November 2013 1,079 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private mobile phone and smartphone-based questionnaire. 57.7% of the sample were female (note, this figure is higher than usual due to this being a mobile survey verses the computer-based surveys that bias towards men), 2.3% were in their teens, 20.9% in their twenties, 35.2% in their thirties, 29.6% in their forties, and 12.0% aged fifty or older.
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Mobile Marketing Data Laboratory recently conducted another survey that proved interesting despite the rather plain title of The use of smartphone camera apps.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 16th of November 2013 558 members of the MMD Labo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionniare. The respondents were aged 18 or older, and all were smartphone users, but further statistics were not presented.

The reason I mentioned the silent camera apps being worrying in the headline is that although I’m sure it is only intended for not scaring pets or babies, hardly a week in Japan seems to go by without a public servant being arrested for upskirt photos, so a silent camera is one way to get around the mandatory shutter noise that all phones in Japan must make.
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Here’s an interesting survey from goo Research that I wish had been around a month ago, as the topic was quite hot then. Regardless, I present it anyway, a look at why Japanese are unable to find a partner for many a year, for both women and men.

Demographics

The survey was conducted between the 4th and 8th of October 2013 where 1,074 people completed a private web-based questionnaire. However, goo Ranking have recently revamped their ranking page and have dropped the link to their demographics. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

The reason I say it was a hot topic was because there was a rash of “sexless youth” stories based on a poorly-translated or misconstrued survey into young people and relationships.
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