世論 What Japan Thinks

An interesting little survey from iShare into Warm Biz at home found a majority kept their room temperature under 20 degrees celcius or 68 degrees fahrenheit for the metrically-challenged.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 20th of October 2010 677 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.2% of the sample were male, 23.9% in their twenties, 32.9% in their thirties, and 43.1% in their forties.

My keeping warm technique falls under the “other” category, cuddling up.

Oh, and no, I don’t know what the red underpants are all about either! Google informs me that apparently a TV program mentioned that they help recover from fatigue, warm you up, relieve back pain and stiff shoulders, and overcomes stress! Here’s a machine translation of a red underpants shop.
Read the rest of this entry »

A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at electronic books.

Demographics

Between the 26th of October and the 1st of November 2010 1,097 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

Manga comics are probably ideally suited to being digitised – with them only taking an hour or two to read, the amount of effort required to buy and store electronic versions is far less than that for paper versions, I would imagine.
Read the rest of this entry »

With the rise in cigarette prices of approximately 100 yen per pack of twenty, adding roughly a third onto the price of the average brand, many smokers took this as an opportunity to quit. This recent survey from Macromill Research doesn’t look at what percentage quit, but instead focuses on how the quitters are coping.

Demographics

Over the 1st and 2nd of November 2010 500 members of the Macromill monitor group who had resolved to stop smoking following the tobacco price rise in October completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 68.4% were male, 12.8% in their twenties, 33.2% in their thirties, 31.8% in their forties, and 22.2% aged fifty or older.

I suppose it’s a good sign that at least some people are quitting, although looking at Q1 and from tales from smokers, relapses can happen at unexpected times, so after a month free from smoking one cannot really say one has kicked the habit. Furthermore, with the end of year party season coming up, thus placing the quitters around people smoking and around drink, the second and third greatest temptations according to Q3SQ1, the risk of relapse will be pretty high, I fear.
Read the rest of this entry »

With only just over eight months before the analogue switch-off, and more importantly with the eco point digital TV cashback to be halved at the end of the month, the 16th regular survey by goo Research into terrestrial digital television broadcasts, reported on by japan.internet.com, found that finally the number of people digital-ready surpassed analogue equipment owners – see the 15th regular survey for the previous data.

Demographics

On the 25th of October 2010 1,093 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private intenet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 22.0% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 11.2% aged sixty or older.

Talking of the halving of eco points, I really, really have to buy two tellies, one for the in-laws, and one for ourselves. For a 32 inch, the eco point cashback is dropping from 12,000 yen to 6,000 yen, so we have to be quick…

I also heard at the weekend when the cable company came round for their regular check-up of our reception that the government are very likely to request that all cable companies continue to supply an analogue feed after the switch-off.
Read the rest of this entry »

Looking at this recent survey from iShare into alcohol people want to drink warm, although the traditional Scottish hot toddy seems very much unknown, the Japanese equivalent is a sake egg-nog called Tamoago-zake, but I don’t fancy the sound of it.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 14th of October 2010 459 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.8% of the sample were male, 29.4% in their twenties, 32.5% in their thirties, and 38.1% in their forties.

Some of people’s favourite recipes included shochu plus umeboshi (sour plum) plus hot water, warmed white wine mixed with a little honey, red wine stewed with herbs, spices and dried fruit, plum wine diluted with hot water, kumquat wine with ginger and cut with hot water, rum and butter and sugar and boilng water, and finally rum and sugar cubes added to boiling milk.
Read the rest of this entry »

The two biggest urban areas of Japan are Tokyo and Osaka, and the areas around them are respectively known as Kanto and Kansai. The two have many differences in habits that even the Japanese themselves find surprising, that being the subject of this recent survey from goo Ranking.

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.

Here’s evidence from flickr of number 1 – left is Osaka, right is Tokyo.

I only knew four of them – the slices per loaf is completely new and quite surprising to me, for instance. I’m not sure why noodle broth was a surprise, as I thought that was pretty common knowledge. However, the first (and last, I hope) time tasting Kanto-style was surprising – there seemed to be about a week’s worth of salt in the pitch-black soup versus the clear and mild Kansai flavour.
Read the rest of this entry »

The title indicates a perhaps not too surprising result from a recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into 3D contents.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 26th of October 2010 1,067 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 20.3% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 16.1% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

Last month Toshiba announced that they would be releasing a no-glasses 3D television at the end of the year, and just this week Sharp made a similar announcement. However, the current state of the art is that only up to about a 20 inch television works, and there is only a relatively narrow sweet spot for getting the 3D effect. However, their strategy may be less promoting their new hardware and more trying to cast doubt in the consumer’s mind about the merits of with-glasses 3D, an area where both companies are losing out badly to their Japanese and Korean rivals.
Read the rest of this entry »

This recent survey from iShare looking at tablet computers produced some surprisingly high figures for user numbers.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 19th of October 2010 746 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.2% of the sample were male, 24.8% in their twenties, 34.0% in their thirties, and 41.2% in their forties.

I do find it a bit difficult to believe that according to Q2 almost one in five already have a tablet computer. I don’t know if people are wrongly classifying any touch-operated mobile as a tablet, or if the demographic is completely skewed.

I’ve got no intention of buying a tablet. The main use for my netbook is hacking up blog entries like this one, so I feel that the software keyboard will get in the way of my typing.
Read the rest of this entry »

A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at mobile video, their 65th survey in their regular mobile research series.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of October 2010, 1,036 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a mobile internet-based questionnaire, thus everyone was a mobile user. 57.6% of the sample were female, 3.6% in their teens, 25.8% in their twenties, 35.2% in their thirties, 25.6% in their forties, and 9.8% aged fifty or older.

My mobile phone is capable of movie playback, but I don’t believe I’ve ever watched any video, not even playback of video shot with the mobile’s camera.
Read the rest of this entry »

iShare took a look at bringing amenity goods to hotels, the reverse of a survey from last year on taking amenity goods home.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 21st of September 2010 470 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.2% of the sample were male, 31.7% in their twenties, 31.9% in their thirties, and 36.4% in their forties.

I’d love to try it an “Eco Stay” plan as I do get a bit fed up with the wife hoovering up even the razor, despite the fact that I always use an electric shaver. Furthermore, I’d rather my own toothbrush and toothpaste rather than the far too soft brushes and tiny tubes of paste.

However, I do like to grab the shampoo from posher hotels – on my recent trip to Hawaii the mango, honey and lychee soap and shampoo went straight into my suitcase (and then leaked, but that’s another story) and with the bed turn-down service also tidying up the room for a second time each day, I could get double helpings of the freebies!
Read the rest of this entry »