世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s a great survey from goo Research into used, rental, and repaired goods and services.

Demographics

Between the 28th of April and the 5th of May 2011 1,074 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were female, 20.1% in their twenties, 20.2% in their thirties, 20.1% in their forties, 19.6% in their fifties, and 19.9% aged sixty or older.

My wife won’t go near anything second-hand, and as for repairing in Japan, I feel unless I have a direct contact with a decent engineer, the average call-out charges or repair costs compare unfavourably with the cost of just buying a replacement item. We’ve had stuff repaired under guarantee – the last time was when our washing machine croaked and they gave us a brand-new latest model upgrade for nothing – but it feels like too much hassle to get older stuff looked at.
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This short report from japan.internet.com on a survey from goo Research on SNS (Social Network Service) privacy produced some interesting results that seem to run counter to the popular image of Japanese SNS users.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of May 2011 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.8% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

Note that in this survey, Twitter counts as an SNS, although I’ve never really understood why. Also note that the public viewing described below might be limited to only friends.
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goo Research recently reported on a survey conducted in association with President magazine, and looking at feeling worries and joy, with this excerpt below focusing more on the worry side of the equation…

Demographics

Over an unspecified period of time 2,168 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All of the sample were in work, and the implication is that it was full-time work. The sample consisted of people between the ages of 20 and 59, but no further demographic breakdown was presented.

I’m afraid I’d probably have to put myself in to the “not really” or “not at all” categories for the questions below!
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goo Research published another interesting look at earthquake-related changes in society, this time support for the disaster-hit areas and changes in values.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 27th of April 2011 1,000 members of the goo Research monitor panel from all areas of Japan except those directly affected by the earthquake and tsunami completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% of the sample were in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

In Q3, probably the thing I’ve most become aware of is who supplies information, in particular the dreadful job much of the foreign English-language press made of reporting on Fukushima specifically.
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Today’s fun from goo Ranking is a look at what kinds of lessons people might expect to have a romantic encounter, for both women encountering men and men encountering women.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of April 2011 1,110 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 60.5% of the sample were female, 10.8% in their teens, 16.2% in their twenties, 27.4% in their thirties, 26.4% in their forties, 9.3% in their fifties, and 9.9% aged sixty or older.

Women put English conversation fourth, although I wonder if they are hoping to meet another student or the teacher?
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With the very real threat of brown-outs, if not complete black-outs in not just the Tokyo area but Nagoya too, saving electricity is a commonly-heard term, with the government setting a 15% cut as a target, people are looking to even cut down electricity use of their home computers, the subject of a recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 13th of May 2011 1,088 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 16.1% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I do just all of the PC power-saving activites except for turning off my router, as it is built-in and hidden in a box in the back of a cupboard.

Talking of power-saving, at work we’ve been asked to ensure our computers are set to go into standby mode after 30 minutes of inactivity, and I saw that Panasonic are releasing a power management utility for their Let’s Note portable computer range that will force a plugged-in computer to switch to battery power at predefined times, to reduce the load over peak hours.
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The 27th regular survey of mobile phone users’ use of computers, conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com, focused on the theme of email newsletters, and in particular mobile phone email newsletters.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 11th of May 2011 1,052 mobile phone using members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a mobile phone-based questionnaire. 55.5% of the sample were female, 3.3% in their teens, 22.8% in their twenties, 37.3% in their thirties, 26.9% in their forties, and 9.7% aged 50 or older.

Decomail is a registered trademark of docomo, an abbreviation of “decorated email”. “HTML email” is probably the more familiar English term for it, email with embedded graphics.

I am subscribed to four low-volume (once a week or so) mailing lists on my mobile phone, one from DCMX (docomo’s credit card) which is quite decomail heavy, one from Mr Donuts that has just emoji, and two others that are text only, although one of the text ones sets the font colour to grey for some strange reason.
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With almost every day bringing a new revelation about how TEPCO failed to release data in a timely manner, and how the government is trying to protect TEPCO or itself rather than kicking ass and taking names, this survey from iShare into nuclear-related information from the government found that not surprisingly, many, many people are dissatisfied.

Demographics

On the 15th of April 2011 1,193 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 8.9% in their twenties, 45.7% in their thirties, and 45.4% in their forties. People from the disaster-affected areas were not surveyed.

Note that this survey was conducted over a month ago, and I suspect if it were repeated today the figures would be even further down the scales of trust and speed, as this week we have finally had official notification that there was a meltdown, despite all evidence pointing towards some degree of fuel rod melting and two months of most commentators agreeing that there had been.
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Following up on onigiri and drinking, we now have DIMSDRIVE looking at snacking in another survey conducted last year but only reported on this month.

Demographics

Between the 22nd of July and the 5th of August 2010 6,720 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.5% of the sample were male, 0.7% in their teens, 10.1% in their twenties. 30.2% in their thirties, 33.1% in their forties, 17.4% in their fifties, and 8.5% sixty or older.

I must admit to being one of the ones who snack just about every day; chocolate at work and whatever sweeties or crisps we have lying around the house at weekends, although my excuse is that I don’t eat a full lunch at work, and at home we fill up at breakfast and dinner, so again the snacks play the role of a rather unhealthy lunch.
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This survey from goo Ranking looked at the biggest-selling weekly manga magazine in Japan, Shonen Jump (which has an official English site), and in particular which series got men into the habit of buying it every week.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of March 2011 1,070 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-base questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 13.1% in their twenties, 24.7% in their thirties, 23.7% in their forties, 13.3% in their fifties, and 15.0% 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 question was for the men only.

According to the blurb, the current circulation is 2.935 million per week, with the record sales being from 1994, when they sold 6.53 million copies one week! I’ve not got much to say on this subject, not being a manga fan, but I will say that I was disappointed to see so many pirate and bootleg sites appearing in my Google searches for the titles.
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