Between the 21st and 24th of May 2010 1,152 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.0% of the sample were male, 11.2% in their teens, 20.7% in their twenties, 28.8% in their thirties, 21.8% in their forties, 10.2% in their fifties, and 7.3% 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.
Given the nature of dating and the relationship of the sexes, I would guess that most of the passengers are female and the drivers are male.
As my wife doesn’t have a licence, her back-seat driving particularly irritates me, followed closely by her terrible directions, occasionally overriding the car navigation’s correct route. Then there’s the constant toilet breaks, lack of distance awareness in both “Are we there yet?” and in setting up 500 km routes that don’t take into account the effect of tiredness on me. And then there’s… I’d better stop now.
Given the combination of the small size of the average Japanese home, all-too-common paper-thin walls, DIY not being very popular, and of course many providers throwing in free wireless-ready routers and USB wi-fi dongles, it’s perhaps more a suprise that wired LANs are relatively popular in this survey from iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, into home LANs.
Demographics
On the 7th of June 2010 300 members of the iBridge online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.0% of the sample were male, 13.7% in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, 31.3% in their forties, 17.7% in their fifties, and 6.7% in their sixties.
My flat came with built-in wired LAN, and I worry a bit about the security aspect so I haven’t bothered to get any sort of wi-fi add-on kit as it’s not that much bother to plug the LAN cable into the wall. Read the rest of this entry »
With the election for the upper house upon us, although the government has lifted the ban on political party web pages (they used to have to blank) so the candidates are now able to update their blogs, etc, email and Twitter remains banned. To see what people think, goo Research, in conjuction with the Mainichi Shimbun, took a look at what people thought of internet-based election campaigns.
Demographics
Over the 8th and 9th of June 2010 1,079 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All were of voting age, but no further demographic breakdown was given.
Note that as usual for this kind of report, don’t knows have been eliminated, so I cannot give a sample size for each of the questions.
In this latest look, this time by Masrh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com, into manga and internet cafes, using the internet just managed to outdo reading manga.
Demographics
Between the 9th and 13th of June 2010 300 members of the Marsh online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 2.3% in their teens, 17.7% 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.
Since last reporting on this I have actually been into an internet cafe! However, rather than the rather dodgy-looking ones in the centre of town, I actually used the Kansai Airport one. It was rather a pleasant experience, given the jet lag, and they have a nice range of speciality teas for you to choose from. It’s worth a visit if you’ve got time to burn, although since Kansai Airport has free wi-fi just about everywhere you don’t need to go there just for the connection, assuming you’ve got a suitable portable device. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the hobbies of Japanese kids in the summer is collecting stag beetles and their friends, so I was interested to see this recent survey from iShare looking at insects.
Demographics
Between the 2nd and 7th of June 2010 482 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 29.9% in their twenties, 33.8% in their thirties, and 36.3% in their forties.
When I was a kid, a ladybird was about the only insect I could cope with, so coming to Japan and finding stuff like massive cockroaches or even the passive cicida fair gives me the willies. It’s cool to see a stick insect or praying mantis in my garden, but the only touching I’ll do is with a rolled-up newspaper. Fortunately my wife can cope, so when any good insects enter the house, she’s on hand to lift them out. Conversely, she’s petrified of wasps, but perhaps my sadistic streak comes through as I enjoy squirting them with fly spray.
Note, insects were defined for the purpose of this survey as three-segmented creatures with feelers in their head part and three pairs of legs in their chest part. Poisonous or stinging creatures like wasps were excluded. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve read a few recent news stories stating rather high user levels for Twitter in Japan that I did find quite difficult to believe, but here is a report from japan.internet.com on a survey by Point On Research into Twitter usage that backs up the data, although note that this survey is of mobile phone users with unlimited data plans.
Demographics
On the 22nd of June 2010 800 heavy users of mobile phones completed a mobile phone-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 25.0% in their teens, 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.0% in their forties.
As I hope you have noticed on my sidebar I’m on Twitter. I’ve tried using it from my mobile phone, but it costs me a little over 100 yen just to load a single page! I do one auto-post per day through my blog, then an occasional manual tweet. I think that as I’m an irregular tweeter replies too are rather irregular.
Finally, at least one candidate in the upcoming election is using Twitter (or should that be Barker?):
With LED lights providing a better performance and eliminating the slight warming-up problem in some fluorescent lights, this survey from iShare looked at issues surrounding these LED light bulbs.
Demographics
Between the 28th of April and the 7th or May 2010 535 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.7% of the sample were male, 30.8% in their twenties, 32.1% in their thirties, and 37.0% in their forties.
Many of the bulbs in my flat are already flourescent, in particular the heavy usage ones are already upgraded, so given the current electricity and bulb costs, replacement takes over four years to pay off. Even the most-used incandescent bulb still has a one-year pay-off cycle – hmm, now I think about it, I should replace that one! Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a fun look at when Japanese feel embarrassed by their lack of English ability, with the top ten moments for both men and women. This survey was, as usual, from goo Ranking.
Demographics
Between the 23rd and 26th of April 2010 1,187 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-base questionnaire. 61.4% of the sample were female, 10.1% in their teens, 17.4% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, 24.9% in their forties, 10.1% in their fifties, and 6.5% 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.
Even though Japanese study English for at least six years in school and it is, as far as I am aware, a compulsory subject in most universities, the level of English is pretty poor, quite frankly. There was some news recently that Uniqlo will make English the office language from next year. I was watching television tonight and they were talking about Samsung, who now sell more electrical goods than the top nine Japanese manufacturers put together, and they will be making English the official company language too. The program compared English levels; Japanese electronic firms set a TOEIC score of between 530 and 700 for management-level jobs, yet Samsung require 700 just to get in the door, then 920 to progress to management, which is pretty close to native fluency. Read the rest of this entry »
goo Ranking recently took a look at a question that seems simple at first glace, why did you decide to marry, for both men deciding and women deciding.
Demographics
Between the 23rd and 26th of April 2010 1,187 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-base questionnaire. 61.4% of the sample were female, 10.1% in their teens, 17.4% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, 24.9% in their forties, 10.1% in their fifties, and 6.5% 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. Only the men in the sample answered this question.
As a cultural note, “Because he’d/she’d decided to change jobs” implies more a posting within the company to a differnt town rather than actually changing employers, and more often than not these postings are effectively mandatory and at short notice.
I’ve never heard the term music SNS before, although now that I read what it is I understand what they are referring to. The survey on this subject was from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com.
Demographics
On the 14th of June 2010 300 members of the iBridge research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.7% of the sample were male, 10.3% in their twenties, 34.3% in their thirties, 34.7% in their forties, 15.0% in their fifties, and 5.7% in their sixties.
I like music, but I’ve just fallen out of the habit of listening to it, so music SNSs are even less appealing than straightforward SNSs! The last time I listened to music off my own bat was this rather entertaining number:
Research results
First of all, seven people disliked music to some degree, so they were eliminated and the remaining 293 asked the following.
Q1A: Do you like listening, singing, or performing music? (Sample size=293)
Listening only
57.0%
Singing only
3.8%
Performing only
1.7%
Both listening and singing
26.6%
Both listening and performing
2.7%
Both singing and performing
0.7%
Listening, singing and performing
7.5%
Another way of looking at the data is this:
Q1B: Do you like listening, singing, or performing music? (Sample size=300)
Votes
Percentage
Listening
275
91.7%
Singing
113
37.7%
Performing
37
12.3%
None of them
7
2.3%
Q2A: Do you participate in a music SNS? (Sample size=293)
With the election for the upper house upon us, although the government has lifted the ban on political party web pages (they used to have to blank) so the candidates are now able to update their blogs, etc, email and Twitter remains banned. To see what people think, goo Research, in conjuction with the Mainichi Shimbun, took a look at what people thought of 
In this latest look, this time by Masrh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com, into 
One of the hobbies of Japanese kids in the summer is collecting stag beetles and their friends, so I was interested to see this recent survey from iShare looking at 
I’ve read a few recent news stories stating rather high user levels for Twitter in Japan that I did find quite difficult to believe, but here is a report from japan.internet.com on a survey by Point On Research into 
With LED lights providing a better performance and eliminating the slight warming-up problem in some fluorescent lights, this survey from iShare looked at issues surrounding these 
I’ve never heard the term 
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