世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1][part 2]

iShare recently reported on a survey conducted into the characteristics of global versus galapagos smartphone users. Here galapagos refers to the Galapagos Syndrome, how Japanese mobile phones have evolved to address Japanese market needs, yet are totally unsuited to the global market. Galapagos smartphones are the usually Android-based phones loaded with local must-haves like infra-red, one seg digital television, and Osaifu Keitai, contactless IC Chip-based payments.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of August 2011 736 smartphone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were male, 11.3% in their twenties, 36.7% in their thirties, 37.4% in their forties, and 14.7% in their fifties.

I will probably buy a gala-sma versus a glo-sma, to use the abbreviated terms for the two types, although I’m also tempted by a Samsung Galaxy (assuming Apple don’t sue them out of the market…) which seems to be a nice halfway house. If I was being logical, I’d just choose an iPhone, but I have a dislike of the image surrounding Apple users and their network stinks!
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Yet another new survey series starts, web site viewing from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com. This is a reboot of a previous mobile phone oriented survey that has now been reworked to be more smartphone-friendly.

Demographics

Between the 29th of August and the 1st of September 1,094 members of the goo Research mobile monitor group complete a private mobile (including smartphone) internet-based questionnaire. 58.2% of the survey were female, 3.2% in their teens, 24.6% in their twenties, 37.4% in their thirties, 25.8% in their thirties, and 9.0% aged fifty or older.

I think even if I had a smartphone it would only ever be a backup device for on the move surfing. On the other hand, if I had on the move surfing, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off it long enough to get these translations done on the train!
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goo Ranking had a fun little ranking survey recently, looking at what unusual loan words that have come from Japanese to English. I believe the survey was conducted based on a Japanese Wikipedia list of loan words.

Demographics

Over the 22nd and 23rd of July 2011 over 1,000 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. However, the link to the sample demographics does not work. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

About the only words you’ll find in a dictionary are hikikomori, which made it into the Oxford dictionary a couple of years ago, and the food ones. I’d like to know how Wikipedia decided on which words to list, as outside of the cooking ones most seem related to anime and manga, in particular the more seedy side of it.
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[part 1][part 2]

iShare recently took a close look at the size of breasts in Japan, as one does. Given the ample size, I’ll split the results into two posts.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 29th of August 2011 650 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The 438 women were split into 31.7% in their twenties and 68.3% in their thirties. The 212 men were split into 22.2% in their twenties and 77.8% in their thirties.

Not surprisingly, men were more in favour of larger breasts, but by not quite as much as I imagined, and a whole 3.3% wanting A cups or less was a difficult to understand result!
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[part 1][part 2]

iShare recently took a close look at the size of breasts in Japan, as one does. Given the ample size, I’ll split the results into two posts.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 29th of August 2011 650 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The 438 women were split into 31.7% in their twenties and 68.3% in their thirties. The 212 men were split into 22.2% in their twenties and 77.8% in their thirties.

It may seem odd, but one of the major underwear makers released in April last year an internet-only breast-reduction bra and sold all 2,000 pairs almost immediately, hastely produced another 6,000 pairs which again sold like hotcakes. From the 7th of this month they are selling this year’s model, again internet-only.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by goo Research into browsers, a survey that I have very serious doubts about the accuracy of.

Demographics

Over the 23rd and 24th of August 2011 1,098 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

As I mention below, I would take the results here with a bit of a pinch of salt.
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Yet another new goo Research regular survey, this time the first look at home electrical appliances, reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 23rd of August 2011 1,071 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 20.8% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, and 28.1% aged fifty or older.

I’ve not bought anything myself recently from the list below, but I was surprised to see that 17% had bought a digital television, despite last year’s eco point discounts making them very affordable. Then again, given how flat-screen TV prices fall every year, perhaps last year’s models are down to the eco point discount levels?
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As a sort-of follow-up to last month’s look at office software at home, we now look with goo Research at office software at work, as reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of August 2011 1,084 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

We’re all Microsoft Office at work, and as it’s only Office 2003 and as more and more people are now moving to 2007 or 2010, it’s getting worse and worse with forward compatibility, and indeed just last week I had a file that would crash Word if I double-clicked it on the file, but if I loaded it up from the File Open diaglog all the text would be completely invisible.
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With it looking like we have managed to survive the summer without a single power cut in Japan, it may be a good time to look at a survey from goo Research conducted in July on saving electricity.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 7th of July 2011 1,080 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were male, 19.5% in their teens, 20.3% in their twenties, 19.9% in their thirties, 20.2% in their forties, and 20.1% aged fifty or older.

The survey title in the original Japanese is usually translated (as I did above) as “saving electricity”, but as a pedant I’d like to point out that you cannot really save electricity, but instead just cut down on the usage. We tried to cut down this summer by using less air conditioning and relying on a simple fan a bit more, but quite frankly I see little difference in our monthly bills.

At work we have various changes, but the stupidest one was to unplug the rechargers for our company mobile phones during peak hours. However, the company phones have hopeless batteries, so if you forgot to plug back in before a long weekend, for example, you could come back to a dead phone that has returned to factory settings. On top of that, it just takes one person to bang their head on the underside of the desk and you’ll have the Health and Safety people all over you. This activity lasted exactly two days in our team.
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Another regular survey from goo Research resets back to one, but at least this time there is a valid reason for it. The subject was terrestrial digitial television, and since just over a month ago analogue broadcasts were turned off (except for in the earthquake affected prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate) it seems a good excuse to make the change.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 17th of August 2011 1,090 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, and 27.5% aged fifty or older.
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