世論 What Japan Thinks

Macromill Research recently conducted a detailed survey into the opinions of recent iPad purchasers, and found a mostly positive set of reactions.

Demographics

On the 14th and 15th of June 2010 300 iPad users from the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 88.7% of the sample were male, 4.7% in their teens, 25.7% in their twenties, 36.0% in their thirties, 19.7% in their forties, and 14.0% aged fifty or older. 51.3% were married, 55.7% were regular company employees, 12.3% students, and all other occupation types were under 7%. A couple of other significant demographics are in tables D1 and D2 below.

The iPad was released on May 28th in Japan, so most people would have had their iPad for less than three weeks. It would be interesting to see the survey results from the same questions in three months time.

It’s curious that in Q7 that a majority are dissatified with the battery life, whereas a search of Google reports that most people are getting more than the advertised 10 hours out of it. Is it just because it is new and people are doing battery-heavy tasks like playing games, downloading stuff and watching movies, or have people got Nintendo DS Lite-like expectations?
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As a foreigner in Japan I already have an ID card, but this very short survey from iShare into a national ID system found men in favour but women slightly opposed to such as system.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 20th of May 2010 503 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.5% of the sample were male, 28.2% in their twenties, 35.0% in their thirties, and 36.8% in their forties.

There already is a local ID system, the Juki Net system.

Some of the personal reasons in favour of such a scheme were a simplification of procedures at city hall and more efficient government with an expectation of cost reduction. Furthermore, more than a few hoped that it would stop people who hadn’t paid their taxes, health insurances, etc unfairly getting access to services. Even those in favour worried about personal data leaks or hack attacks. Those opposed worried it would be used for evil, that personal data might leak, and just general discomfort about being watched by Big Brother. Furthermore, people felt the existing Juki Net system was sufficient.

The national ID system was described as a single number for every citizen that would be bring together personal information on tax, pension, nursing, and other social security-related data. Furthermore, it is possible that they will introduce Government Kiosk Terminals at post offices and convenience stores that would print out various resident forms. Finally, health records would be made electronic and patients themselves could use this information, and medical professionals could remotely diagnose people, and old folks would be looked after.
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With 3D movies now becoming the norm, it seems, this detailed look at this subject of 3D movies by DIMSDRIVE Research reveals some interesting attitudes.

Demographics

Between the 20th of January and 4th of February 2010 8.596 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were male, 1.0% in their teens, 11.3% in their twenties, 32.9% in their thirties, 31.2% in their forties, 16.2% in their fifties, and 7.4% aged sixty or older.

I’ve now been to two 3D movies; first was Up, which would have been better in 2D, quite frankly, as I didn’t see what I was paying the extra 300 yen for, then it was Alice in Wonderland (note that this survey was conducted before the general release in Japan, and I’m surprised that peope claim to have seen it! Toy Story 3 similarly is still not out in Japan), which was a very good movie and was perhaps better in 3D, although the nose pain from the glasses makes me not really keen on going to see 3D movies if I can avoid it. For Alice, the only 2D English versions were either early morning or late at night, so 3D was unavoidable.
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This recent look by Media Interactive (iResearch), reported on by japan.internet.com, into translation web sites found, surprisingly to me, that Google Translate was nowhere to be seen.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of June 2010 1,000 internet users who had used translation web sites completed a survey. 57.1% of the sample were male, 1.1% were in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 29.6% in their thirties, 28.5% in their forties, 14.8% in their fifties, and 7.6% in their sixties.

Just to test out the sites, in Q1 I’ve fed in the first sentence the article, “ポータルサイトを中心に各社が翻訳サービスを提供しているが、ユーザーの利用状況はどうだろうか。”, which I would manually translate as “Focused around portal sites, various companies offer translation services, but how do users use them?” For the Other category, I’ll use Google Translate, since I mentioned its omission above. Also note that Yahoo! use Babelfish on their English site, which gives this translation “Focusing on the portal sight each company offers translation service, but will utilization circumstance of the user how probably be?”, which is probably the worst of the lot, especially as it doesn’t seem to be aware of the common phrase “portal site”!
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One of the topics of conversation in Japan these days is the beard ban enacted by a local council. To find out what people think of this, iShare conducted a survey into beards.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 4th of June 2010 423 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.8% of the sample were male,・0.7% in their twenties, 31.9% in their thirties, and 37.4% in their forties.

The reason for enacting the ban was because some taxpayer customer got upset at seeing a half-shaven face one morning; rather than a sensible ruling on not coming in to work without shaving, the council decided all facial hair must go. There was quite an entertaining article in the Japan Times looking at this issue.

I think a beard can look good, but chin beards or half-hearted moustache are not, although I’d never dream of complaining about one. However stubble that looks like one’s just got out of bed has to go!
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Anyone bringing out an iPhone or, heaven forfend, an iPad at a gokon dating party would get nothing but ridicule (or a punch in the iGob, if I was feeling generous) from me, but regardless, this survey from goo Ranking and probably sponsored by Apple looked at the top twenty dating party applications for the iPhone

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of May 2010 perhaps around 1,100 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Unfortunately, the link to the demographics is broken, so I cannot give any more information that that right now. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Quite frankly, all these games sound rather naff to me, but then again I’m not in the target audience! Have any of my readers tried out any of the below at a real party?
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goo Ranking takes us to a gokon dating party again, this time looking at what sort of person gets points against them on first meeting at a dating party, for both women looking at men and men looking at women.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of May 2010 perhaps around 1,100 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Unfortunately, the link to the demographics is broken, so I cannot give any more information that that right now. 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 that in Japan non-smoking restaurants are the exception rather than the rule, I’m surprised that smoking doesn’t rank way up near the top of the list, in particular smoking without asking if it is OK with everyone else.

For me, not laughing at gags would be a plus point, as the Japanese sense of humour as seen in visual comedy does absolutely nothing for me, on the whole.
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A recent survey from Marsh Inc, reported on by japan.internet.com, into recording television programs found the use of video tapes outnumbering Blu-ray players.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 23rd of May 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 2.0% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fities, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

I watch more TV in real-time than recorded – weekdays is usually real-time, weekends is catching up with what I’ve missed.
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An interesting survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into Apple’s iPad found that not just awareness but also desire was high for Apple’s new couch surfing device.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 5th of June 2010 1,096 members of the goo Research online 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, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I have been at a conference in Hungary over the last week, and one of the attendees had brought along an iPad as his main device, although as far as I could gather from the demonstration he gave a few of us it was just for surfing and light emailing during the duller presentations. I didn’t see any others in evidence during my travels, even though I half-expected to see one or two on the flight from Japan. I’ll not be trading up from my netbook, as a real keyboard is needed for these translations.
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I’ve never considered an outbreak of spots cute, and I can’t really imagine anyone else finding plouks attractive, but this survey from iShare into acne uncovered a large number of spot fans.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of May 2010 1,081 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.9% of the sample were female, 30.8% in their twenties, and 69.2% in their thirties, and all were unmarried.

If you’ve been in Japan for any period of time recently you surely cannot fail to have seen an ad or ten for Proactiv (no link – they’ll have to pay me for one!), all exceedingly annoying! I also saw last week that the Bashful Prince, Ryo Ishikawa, has recently broken out, so given that he is this year the king of advertisements, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets lined up to endorse Proactiv too.

Oh, and I just checked that in the US a thirty day kit is $19.95, in Japan a sixty day kit is 9,300 yen, making it about 2.5 times more expensive in Japan.

I never had acne, although I now have psorisis and have to wear short trousers on doctor’s orders!
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