世論 What Japan Thinks

Let’s look at another curious corner of Japanese life, the use of ballpoint pens, in a survey conducted by DIMSDRIVE Research.

Demographics

Between the 19th of August and the 3rd of September 2009 11,182 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.8% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 10.8% in their twenties, 32.5% in their thirties, 31.6% in their forties, 16.7% in their fifties, and 7.5% aged sixty or older.

I don’t buy any pens, instead I usually fremantle them on business trips.

Coincidentally, when looking at this year’s nengajo New Year postcars my wife did remark on how a couple of them that had been hand-written with fine point ballpoint pens looked very neat, and how she wanted to buy a similar pen.
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…and heaven knows I’m ragingly horny now, as Morrissey never did sing, which serves by way of an introduction to this survey from goo Ranking into what moments make you wish you yourself were madly in love, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of October 2009 1,162 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 62.9% of the sample were female, 10.5% in their teens, 20.7% in their twenties, 30.8% in their thirties, 21.9% in their forties, 9.0% 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.

When I was single, I don’t think I ever got a mad desire to rush out and pair off with anyone, it was more just frustration then acceptance of my situation.
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One thing that I have always considered a bit of a dichotomy in Japan has been the overwhelming anti-nuclear weapon stance of the general public (hmm, I don’t actually have a survey on that, so I hope I’m correct!) versus the seemingly quiet acceptance of nuclear power. This recent survey from Central Research Services Inc looked at the second half of the above statement. The survey was entitled living and the environment, so the below is just one part of the survey.

The “Is nuclear power needed?” question is a difficult one to decipher, and the text doesn’t suggest any refinement to it. Given that Kinki’s main electricity generator KEPCO (Kansai Electric Power Co) generates 60% of its power from nuclear, it is very much required, so a negative answer is not a realistic position. However, if the question is more slanted towards “Is more needed?” or “Should alternatives be found and existing facilities decommissioned?”, that goes some way to explaining the 20% opposition. Here is an article on Kinki power.
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Japan has a million and one Days every year, with today, the 10th of October being marked as Moe Day, Look After Your Eyes Day, Fishing Day, Tuna Day, Tin Can Day, Public Bath Day, and no doubt many, many more. To investigate the awareness of these and other celebrations, iShare looked at October Days.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 24th of September 2009 591 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.9% of the sample were male, 34.9% in their twenties, 30.3% in their thirties, and 34.9% in their forties.

Moe, or 萌え in Japanese, is basically the love of cute animation or video game characters, which for me has undertones of unhealthy obsession, and its broad acceptance within Japan is one aspect of the country that I do not like at all. As to why today is Moe Day, let’s look more closely at how the 10th of October and Moe are written in kanji:

As to why the other Days fall on today, I am at a loss to tell you why, except for Public Bath Day. 10th October is 10/10, or 1010, or one thousand and ten, which can be pronunced in Japanese as sen-tou, which is also the pronuciation for 銭湯, public bath. I’m quite proud of myself for working that one out. Finally, 10th of October used to be Health and Sports Day, but from 2000 they moved it to the second Monday in October.

萌（♡´∀`♡）え
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