Pseudo-science and superstition believed by far too many Japanese

By Ken Y-N ( June 7, 2008 at 20:41) · Filed under Polls, Society

Following on from some news from the Yomiuri about religious belief, this time it is BlogCh and iShare looking at two types of fraudulent nonsense, blood typing and fortune telling.

Demographics

Both surveys were conducted between the 22nd and 24th of May 2008. For the blood type survey, 506 people completed the online survey, including 30 people who didn’t know their blood type. 55.7% of the sample were male, 12.3% in their twenties, 48.2% in their thirties, 28.7% in their forties, and 10.9% of other ages. For the astrology survey, 504 people completed the online survey. 55.3% of the sample were male, 12.3% in their twenties, 48.2% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, and 10.9% of other ages. All respondents were members of the free mail forwarding service CLUB BBQ.

It should be rather obvious where I stand on the issue, but I must admit to watching and enjoying the blood type race every weekday morning at about 9:50 at the end of Toku Da Ne. It’s quite fun to watch just to see if my wife or I win, and the advice is usually quite silly, although I always suspect she takes it rather more seriously than me.

Regarding Q2, my wife was convinced that I was type B, and she knew she was an A, as they both fitted her image of our personalities, but when we had a health check a few years ago, the results came back with different blood types for both of us.

Oh, I nearly forgot my two contributions to the world of divination, My Buddhist Name and brainscannr.
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Japanese astrology internet site believers number three in ten?

By Ken Y-N ( April 2, 2007 at 23:04) · Filed under Entertainment, Internet, Polls

Do you care about the outcome of on-line fortune telling? graph of japanese opinionjapan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey conducted by goo Research into the use of on-line fortune-telling sites and services.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of March 1,079 members of goo Research’s online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.7% were male, 24.2% in their twenties, 22.5% in their thirties, 22.1% in their forties, 20.8% in their fifties, and 10.5% in their sixties.

The demographics are worth bearing in mind when reading the results; one has the impression that women are more interested and more believing of horoscopes and the like, so perhaps this survey suggests a majority of women may read their fortune online regularly. I would love to see the full data.

I did look at this topic last year, so it may be useful to check that data out too. Sadly, in a way, I believe astrology is all bunk. Sadly, as I do get a noticable amount of traffic searching for “japanese astrology”, so if I had no scruples I could monetize this traffic quite easily!

One thing I find interesting is that with the fuss over television programs making stuff up, there seems to be little or no collateral damage on these frauds, including the chief witch, Kazuko Hosoki, who still gets prime-time coverage, although I suppose people do enjoy her as much for her sharp tongue as for her divination. Still, at least she doesn’t seem quite as irresponsible as Sylvia Browne.


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