世論 What Japan Thinks

With Father’s Day on the horizon, iShare took a very detailed look at fathers at home.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of May 2010 450 male members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All were married with children, and with a salary of 3 million yen or more. 80.0% were in their forties, and 20.0% were in their fifties. Note that this is the first survey I can remember from iShare that included anyone in their fifties.

Oyaji is a slighly insulting or self-deprecating term to refer to a middle-aged man, in particular ones with a middle-aged outlook or appearance. Or smell…

It’s perhaps not surprising that over half the participants have some complaint or other about their home life. Personally, I don’t have any complaints of sufficient note to register in Q1, and any lingering feelings I might have are easily dispelled by the relief of getting away from the office!
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I’ve been looking forward to encountering a survey such as this one from iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, into overseas money transfer, focusing on the seemingly invisible in Japan PayPal.

Demographics

On the 17th of May 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 13.3% in their twenties, 35.7% in their thirties, 28.0% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 7.0% in their sixties.

On the first of April this year PayPal banned inter-personal money transfers originating in Japan to be in compliance with the Fund Settlement Act.

I was surprised to see almost a third aware of PayPal, as I thought it was very much a niche product in Japan.
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This survey into electronic book readers by iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com found that the iPad seemed an attractive choice to many electronic book readers.

Demographics

On the 24th of May 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 15.3% in their twenties, 30.0% in their thirties, 28.0% in their forties, 19.7% in their fifties, and 7.0% in their sixties.

There must have been a corresponding question to Q1SQ2 for Amazon’s Kindle, as although it wasn’t reported the text implied that many fewer people were interested in reading on a specialised device.

Despite good reviews of Sony’s e-readers, they don’t seem to be on sale in Japan for some reason and their Japanese web site stopped updating at the end of 2008, although if I were to hazard a guess it would be due to the difficulty in making a deal with the rather old-fashioned mindsets that seem to present in Japanese publishing houses.
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Having looked recently at the computer recycle law, here’s a related look with iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com at printer disposal.

Demographics

On the 10th of May 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 13.0% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 29.7% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, and 8.7% in their sixties.

In Q1SQ2, note that most local authorities have separate collections for unburnable rubbish and large rubbish. Some places charge for certain kinds of large rubbish, and some places also try to recycle the large rubbish, although I haven’t a clue what happens to the unburnables.

My local authority says that printers can be disposed of for free as large rubbish, although my last place charged 300 yen, so when I had a printer to throw away I dismantled it and chucked it out bit-by-bit…
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It’s been a couple of years since the last time I translated a survey into television versus internet, so I was interested to see how the numbers have changed according to this recent survey from Marsh Inc, reported on by japan.internet.com, into computer and internet usage, but focusing on television-related issues.

Demographics

Between the 28th of April and the 7th of May 2010 (quite a long span!) 300 members of the Marsh online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 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.

The results seem to display a definite trend back to television, although the article does not attempt to ascribe a reason for this, although I feel for such a change to happen in just 7 or 8 months the only reason can be that their sampling methodology either is poor or has changed since the last survey; I don’t think it is a real change in behaviour.
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This is my favourite of the three goo Ranking for this Silly Sunday, a look at what sorts of friends of the opposite sex would you definitely not want to introduce to friends of the same sex, for both women men definitely wouldn’t introduce to male friends and men women definitely wouldn’t introduce to female friends. I hope that makes sense, and I hope I’ve got it the right way round!

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.

My wife occasionally gets requests from her friends to ask me if I know any foreigners that we could introduce to her friends, but out of principle I wouldn’t really want to introduce someone who was specifically looking for a foreign boyfriend!
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Here’s a slightly better survey than the earlier one, where this time goo Ranking looked at what actions by one’s girlfriend, wife make you think “You’re as cute as anything!”.

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.

Hmm, I cannot really think of a suitable answer from my own experience! She doesn’t wear my clothes, and I always have to wake up 30 minutes before her on weekends, she doesn’t do the sleeves thing, and her running around the zoo produces more of feeling of happiness in me to see her relaxing for a bit. Furthermore, she always cops out with jars and bottles and gives them straight to me to open!
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A timely survey this is, with a new female graduate joining our team at work from tomorrow. The survey is from goo Ranking, looking at twenty moments when the junior staff of the female persuation give you the hots for them.

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.

Despite the enticing title of the survey, this is a particularly tame set of results from goo Ranking, especially as there are two types of answers mixed up – the woman leading the man on and the man getting excited by her actions. Number 6 in particular is rather creepy.
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This recent survey from iShare looked at praiseworthy glasses, a rather grand title influenced, no doubt, by the survey being sponsored by the glasses vendor JINS.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 16th of April 2010 834 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.0% of the sample were male, 28.7% in their twenties, 33.1% in their thirties, and 38.2% in their forties.

I have prescription glasses, and I’ve never thought of getting dummies, even when I wore contact lenses. As my uncorrected vision is horrendous, no matter how well they might suit me, squinting and walking into things while wearing dummy glasses far outweighs the benefits.
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With Apple’s iPad to go on sale from tomorrow in Japan, this recent survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com takes a timely look at what iPhone and iPod Touch users think about iPhone applications and the iPad.

Demographics

On the 25th of May 2010 800 heavy mobile phone users who were members of the Point On monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, and 25:25:25:25 teens, twenties, thirties and forties.

I’m surprised at the low number of iPod Touch users. Around about 5% might be a fair number for iPhone users alone, but from my observations in the train to work there appears to be more iPod Touch users than 5%. However, Point On Research do seem not to cover the iPhone demographic well, as in other surveys the percentage of SoftBank customers has been low, but I don’t know what would cause a drop (assuming I’m not just overestimating!) in iPod Touch users.

In Q2, the entertainment category probably covers silly trick applications like the multitude of fart apps and the like.
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