世論 What Japan Thinks

One of the Democratic Party of Japan’s good ideas from my point of view was to propose staggered holidays across the country rather than the current situation of all 120 million taking their May Golden Week holiday all at the same time. To see how this proposal was being received by the public, the Cabinet Office Japan conducted a survey into this topic.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 31st of October 2010 3,000 people selected at random from resident registers were approached to take part in a survey, and 1,953 people, or 65.1% agreed to a face-to-face interview. The sex breakdown was not reported.

Currently in Japan there is the Golden Week holiday over the end of April and the start of May when the vast majority of the public have a holiday, plus four public holidays are set to be on a particular Monday in a particular month. The proposal from the government is to split the country from north to south into five blocks and assign a week’s spring and autumn holiday period (the autumn holiday being new) to each block, and move the four Monday holidays to a fixed date and no longer make them public holidays.

I used to be very much in favour of this idea, but on reading a few opinions from other foreigners I’m a bit less keen on the idea, the reason being that the ideal situation would be to make easier to take holidays at one’s own convenience, just like most of the rest of the world. One benefit, however, would be an easing of traffic by spreading it over five weeks, and hopefully lower prices as hotels now have a ten week busy period rather than the current situation of just one week of complete overbooking, and the attendant increased money circulation from more people being able to take a holiday rather than just staying at home as they cannot afford to travel.
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Rice has the image as the main staple of the Japanese dining table, so this recent survey from goo Research looked at rice and eating habits to find out the truth behind the stereotype.

Demographic

Between the 15th and 18th of November 2010 1,295 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were female, 16.4% in their teens, 16.8% in their twenties, 16.3% in their thirties, 16.8% in their forties, 16.8% in their fifties, and 16.8% aged sixty or older.

We buy all our rice these days over the internet, and usually a different brand or region every time; we’re currently on Shiga rice of a brand whose name I couldn’t read. We sometimes pick up brown rice or brown rice blends, which makes a change from sometimes quite bland white rice.

However, if you think Japanese rice is bland, may I suggest getting a new rice cooker? We recently replaced our old one which cooked everything into a glutenous mulch, but now with the new one each grain remains distinct and much more pleasent on my tastebuds. I still miss Basmati, however…

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Tonight’s little bit of fun is from goo Ranking, looking at what kinds of behaviour are usually associated with annoying senior staff in Japanese companies.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of October 2010 1,075 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 66.3% of the sample were female, 9.9% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 8.8% in their fifties, and 7.5% 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.

If he’s reading my blog, my direct boss does none of these. If he’s not, he does at least 1, 5, 9 and 11.
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Although there is still some time for the Eco Point award system for digital televisions, air conditioners and refrigerators to run, from the start of this month the points have been halved, so now seemed a good time for goo Research to take a look at what people thought of the scheme, in a survey reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

From the 3rd to 6th of December 2010 1,089 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

I think the scheme has been effective from a financial point of view, prising open Japanese wallets to get some money circulating. From an environmental point of view, it will help reduce household electricity consumption by replacing old inefficient equipment, but looking at the overall carbon cycle there’s less of a clear benefit. For my part, we upgraded our 28 inch CRT television to a 42 inch plasma, but looking at the power consumption the old one was rated at around 200 watts but the new one is 330 watts. Oops.

If they want new products to promote, I’d like to see fluorescent and LED light bulbs being chosen, as lighting uses more that televisions or fridges, and none of the current Eco Point products can compare to the savings from LED.
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A recent survey from Macromill Research becomes my first look at Christmas 2010.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of November 2010 500 members of the Macromill monitor group resident within Tokyo or the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 24.8% were in their twenties, 25.2% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, and 24.8% in their fifties.

My Christmas Eve will be spent at home, and Christmas Day is with the parents-in-law, which sounds more interesting than it actually will be. It’s not any Christmas event, but just that we bought them a terrestrial digital-ready television last month and the first available delivery date turned out to be December 25th, so we need to go along to make sure we get all the paperwork to claim back our eco points.
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goo Research recently conducted their thirteenth regular survey into internet advertising, with japan.internet.com reporting on the results.

h3>Demographics
Between the 19th and 22nd of November 2010 1,036 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.8% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, and 27.6% aged fifty or older.

To try to catch the third of you who click on contextual affiliate adverts, I’ll mention that if you are running under Windows AdMuncher by Murray Hurps is an excellent blocker for 99% of all advertisements and works with any browser. It’s not free, but it’s great value and might even pay for itself if you surf using a 3G connection. It’s blocked about 200 adverts a day on my netbook, and makes for a much more pleasant experience as valuable screen space isn’t consumed by huge adverts. Once again, buy AdMuncher by Murray Hurps through this link and help out What Japan Thinks!
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A recent survey from iShare took a look at strong and cool Japanese men, a follow-on from looks at strong and cool Japanese women, guys earning more than 10 million yen and guys with more than 10 million in the bank.

Demographics

Over the 27th and 28th of October 2010 1,856 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service in full-time employment and with a driving license completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 72.6% of the sample were male, 8.2% were in their twenties, 49.9% in their thirties, and 41.8% in their forties.

In Q10, not surprisingly Ken Watanabe (Last Samurai, Inception, etc) comes first – he’s the Japanese star I’d most like to meet.

Comparing with the woman’s results, for the blood type question the O and A percentages are basically reversed. Disappointly, however, there is no answer “I just don’t care” for that one. However, when it comes to real matters like work-life balance, for both strong and cool men and strong and cool women the figures were very similar. It might be interesting to have a follow-on questionnaire on the differences between images of the two sexes.
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This survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, was their regular look at keitai (mobile phone) novels, a genre of writing designed to be read on a mobile phone, and often written on them too. Common features include short sentences, paragraphs and chapters, and a casual writing style featuring emoticons and graphical emoji icons. This is the 7th time this approximately bi-monthly survey has been conducted; the sixth survey translation is here for reference.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 30th of November 2010 1,087 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

Unfortunately, the article just notes the halt in the rise of smartphone readers of keitai novels without any analysis. I don’t really have any insights either, so any conjecture would be a pure guess, so I’ll refrain from making one.
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As well as informing my readers about Japan, I also like to throw in some of my own heritage, here the word bidie-in, a far better word than the clinical cohabitee, the subject of this recent survey from goo Ranking into what people could not stand about their bidie-in.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of October 2010 1,075 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 66.3% of the sample were female, 9.9% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 8.8% in their fifties, and 7.5% 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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In Japan, it is the Christmas tradition that if you have a family you eat Kentucky Fried Chicken, if you have a partner you spend the night at a posh hotel, but for singles, what? goo Ranking decided it would be trying to find a partner, so this recent survey looked at what unattached people would do to try to find someone by Christmas.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of September 2010 1,072 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 68.2% of the sample were female, 10.4% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 29.8% in their thirties, 26.2% in their forties, 8.7% in their fifties, and 7.0% 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.

If none of the below work for you, try this article for some hints: