With recent reports of Sony and rather surprisingly Nintendo too losing money, they undoubtedly have high hopes for their next generation of consoles, but this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into games machines (the first in a new series of regular surveys) does not make good reading.
Demographics
Between the 17th and 19th of October 2011 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.9% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.3% aged fifty or older.
I wonder if just as people talk about a post-PC world where smartphones and tablets take the fore, are we also entering a post-console world? Zynga, the makers of FarmVille and other Facebook games are about to float at a valuation of $6 billion, and DeNA, the people who run the almost-exclusively Japanese gaming site Mobage had a turnover of about $1.5 billion (yes, dollars, not yen) last year with a profit ratio of about 50%! However, both these companies offer mainly pretty simple browser-based games using the freemium model – free to play, but with additional items available for a fee. Similarly, the iPhone and Android app stores price games very cheap and support them using either or both in-game advertising or paid-for additional items or levels. Thus, a separate console plus $30 or $40 per game looks not too good a deal. Read the rest of this entry »
This seems a rather appropriate survey to translate right now, as I’m on holiday and will be soon arriving at my hotel which according to its web page has free internet; and indeed it does, although you have to phone the front desk to get a password. This seems to be the favourite location for people to connect, according to this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into travel and the internet.
Demographics
Between the 18th and 20th of October 2011 1,095 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.
My usual way of connecting is of course at the hotel room, but others include coffee shops, as fortunately most countries other than Japan offer free wireless. Furthermore, as my overseas travel is to conferences, I of course use the conference wireless too. Last time I was in Hong Kong I even tried to use the wifi on the airport express train, but the only way to get an access code was to dial a special number for an SNS passcode, but my phone didn’t seem to work…
The article also notes that there was not a distinction made between whether people were connecting to the internet from the hotel via their own mobile phones or from computers set up in the hotel, and they thought that might make a good survey. I would add that they also ought to ask about who brings a netbook, notebook or a tablet with them on holiday. Read the rest of this entry »
A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by goo Research, looked at 3D movies.
Demographics
Between the 7th and 11th of October 2011 1,085 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 11.6% aged sixty or older.
I have absolutely no plan to buy a 3D television, and I always try to find the 2D version of movies, although recently it’s become harder, especially trying to find the combination of both 2D and subtitled instead of dubbed versions. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the 5th and 6th of September 2011 1,112 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 70.8% of the sample were female, 13.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 28.1% in their thirties, 25.5% in their forties, 8.7% in their fifties, and 6.0% 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. This survey was for the women only.
This is another one of these surveys that leaves me scratching my head as to the point; nail art and skirts on men are a very different statement to, say, a piercing or a tanktop. Here’s a photo from Flickr of someone violating numbers 2, 4, 12, 18 and 21 at least!
japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by goo Research into viewing advertisements on mobile phones, the second time this regular survey has been conducted.
Demographics
Between the 11th and 13th of October 2011 1,091 mobile phone-owning (including smartphone) members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. 60.7% of the sample were female, 4.0% in their teens, 25.5% in their twenties, 39.0% in their thirties, 23.3% in their forties, and 8.2% aged fifty or older.
I don’t browse anything outside of docomo’s walled garden on my mobile, but even that bungs an ugly animated gif at the top of the home page. Read the rest of this entry »
You may have read the news that the Royal Society of London has made available online its archives from the foundation in 1665 to 1881, so naturally I thought I’d see what people thought of Japan all these years ago. The earliest hit was from 1669 (doi: 10.1098/rstl.1669.0027 Phil. Trans. 1 January 1669 vol. 4 no. 45-56 983-986), in an article entitled “Some Observations Concerning Japan, Made by an Ingenious Person, That Hath Many Years Resided in That Country; as they Were Communicated in French by M. I; Whence they are Thus English’d by the Publisher; Who Some Months Agoe Accasion’d This Accompt by Some Queries, Sent to That Traveller“, which may be read online for free here.
The article title comes from this description of the Japanese:
Another article deals with the poison oak tree, the sap of which is used in Japan and China to make lacquer. Page 869 talks about it being known as Sitz-dsju and page 870 as the Fashi-no-ki. Can anyone decode either name into Japanese or Chinese? The current Japanese name is Urushi, but a relative is Rhus succedanea (or Toxicodendron succedaneum), or Hase-no-ki, which looks like a match.
goo Research, in conjunction with the electronic magazine OnDeck, took a look at cooking your own books, an expression in Japanese which refers to the activity of scanning your books to an electronic format.
Demographics
There were two distinct samples; first, the OnDeck readership was surveyed between the 12th and 20th of September 2011, with 294 people replying, then the goo Research online monitor group was surveyed over the 12th and 13th of October 2011, with 1,063 completing the survey.
As well as doing the scanning yourself at home, there are a number of companies that will do it for you. You send them a box of books, and they will scan them in and return them to you, but only after guillotining off the spine to prevent you reselling the paper editions. This service operates in a bit of a legal black hole – it may be illegal, but no-one has taken a case to court yet, as far as I am aware. Here’s a video of how to do it at home:
At least, I hope the last survey! This is a survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into digital terrestrial television that was conducted in February, published in July, and finally translated by me in October.
Demographics
Between the 10th and 24th of February 2011 7,237 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 9.3% in their twenties, 27.8% in their thirties, 32.1% in their forties, 18.4% in their fifties, and 11.5% aged sixty or older.
As everything’s a bit out of date now that the digital switchover is history, instead here’s a countdown to the switchoever:
This ranking survey from goo Ranking uses an internet slang that the person who writes the URLs for the surveys couldn’t translate! Usually the URLs are English summaries of the survey topic, but this time we got just non_leah_mitsuru, a poor transliteration of the term 非リア充. The term リア充 appears in my favourite dictionary, so by negating it as indicated by 非, the survey becomes a look at the features of people who do not have a sufficient real-world life.
Demographics
Over the 5th and 6th of September 2011 1,112 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 70.8% of the sample were female, 13.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 28.1% in their thirties, 25.5% in their forties, 8.7% in their fifties, and 6.0% 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. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been a while since goo Ranking has published back-to-back a paired survey, so I am pleased to present what people in relationships make effort to do in order to prevent their partner getting bored with them, for both men and women.
Demographics
Over the 5th and 6th of September 2011 1,112 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 70.8% of the sample were female, 13.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 28.1% in their thirties, 25.5% in their forties, 8.7% in their fifties, and 6.0% 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.
With recent reports of Sony and rather surprisingly Nintendo too losing money, they undoubtedly have high hopes for their next generation of consoles, but this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into games machines (the first in a new series of regular surveys) does not make good reading.
This seems a rather appropriate survey to translate right now, as I’m on holiday and will be soon arriving at my hotel which according to its web page has free internet; and indeed it does, although you have to phone the front desk to get a password. This seems to be the favourite location for people to connect, according to this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into 
A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by goo Research, looked at 
japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by goo Research into 
goo Research, in conjunction with the electronic magazine 
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