世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com reported on a new series of survey by goo Research, this one being the first regular survey of internet auctions.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 29th of August 2013 1,074 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 13.8% in their teens, 15.5% in their twenties, 20.9% in their thirties, 17.5% in their forties, and 32.2% aged fifty or older.

I must apologise for things being slow here recently – I’ve been rather busy at work on a new and interesting project, so I haven’t really had much time or energy for blogging when I get home! I meant to post this last night, but I fell asleep at the keyboard…

Back on topic, I’ve never used an auction – I may have once in the distant past registered with eBay to try out something. However, I keep thinking about signing up to sell some stuff I have, in particular a McVities biscuit Licca-chan (Japanese Barbie) doll that I won in a competition, a limited edition that I’m sure collectors would love to get their hands on.
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Last month I had a look at buying habits on Yahoo! Auction, so as a complement today I look at selling on Yahoo! Auction, in a survey from Media Interactive (iResearch) reported on japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of January 2010 1,000 people who had sold items on Yahoo! Auction completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 0.5% in their teens, 13.6% in their twenties, 39.3% in their thirties, 31.6% in their forties, 12.0% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

It does seem that sellers are quite busy, with over two in five selling at least once a month. I’d love to find out more about what they are selling and if they are doing it as a real business or just selling off books they’ve read and clothes they’ve got bored with. Have any of my readers had any experiences of Japan online auctions?
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In Japan, Yahoo! Auction rules the roost, and this recent survey from Media Interactive (iResearch) into Yahoo! Auction showed that they also had the payment side of the auction well-covered too.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 9th of December 2009 1,400 people who had won auctions on Yahoo! completed a private internet-based questionnaire, although how exactly they found the 1,400 winners was not described. 52.1% of the sample were male, 0.6% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 35.6% in their thirties, 31.2% in their forties, 13.1% in their fifties, and 4.1% in their sixties.

Yahoo! Simple Checkout is not like the standard for Ebay auctions, PayPal, in that it is not a bank-like entity but instead a trusted go-between so that there is no direct exchange of banking details. Yahoo! Simple Checkout can also be used when shopping through Yahoo! services, so there is no need to give your credit card details to the shops, just your Yahoo! Simple Checkout details.
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Well, given the sample internet population that replied to this questionnaire that headline is true, as revealed by a recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet auctions.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of January 2009 1,027 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve never participated in an internet auction, as the worry about getting ripped-off outweighs any financial benefit that I feel I would gain from using it.

If you want to take part in a Japanese auction but live overseas, one easy way is through a Japan-based representative, with Rinku being one well-known example.
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I’ve never taken part in online auctions myself, although I’ve got a bit of rubbish high quality pre-owned goods that I could always get rid of to bring in a few extra pennies. However, it seems that a large minority of Japanese are busy buying and selling, if this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc on auctions is to be believed.

Demographics

On the 6th of March 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor pool successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample was female, 17.0% in their twenties, 42.1% in their thirties, 23.3% in their forties, 9.1% in their fifties, and 8.5% in their sixties.

In a survey last week I commented on how a surprisingly high percentage of Japanese spend most online time on Yahoo! but this suggests many of them are busy with auctions!

If you want to take part in Japanese auctions, but you live overseas or cannot read Japanese too well, I usually recommend Rinkya as somewhere that provides a bidding and forwarding service for these sorts of buyers. I’ve not personally used their services, and I’ve indeed not even seen any reviews of their service, and they are not cheap, but if you need items from Japan they seem a good place to check out.
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I’ve never actually participated in an online auction myself, but the stories I hear about eBay’s security problems and about fraudulent auctions fair put me off wanting to try, despite stories about some people getting lucky. So, I was interested to read a column on japan.internet.com about research conducted by goo Research into the subject of internet auctions.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 13th of July 2007 1,077 members of goo Research’s online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample was male, 17.7% in their teens, 18.8% in their twenties, 16.2% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 18.9% in their fifties, and 11.7% aged sixty or older.

There is, of course, many sites that specialise in highlighting the tat and other interesting rubbish that people try to flog on online auctions; here are a few of my favourites:

Who would buy that?
What the heck?
hexadecimal – the oddities of eBay motors
Strange Japanese auctions
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At the start of June MyVoice surveyed its internet monitor community to find out about their use of internet auction sites. 14,023, 54% female, successfully completed their private internet-based questionnaire. 3% of the sample were in their teens, 22% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 24% in their forties, and 12% in their fifties.

Internet auctions is one thing I’ve never done, although I did have two ideas for businesses there than never took off. The first probably required a partner in the USA or UK for bulk shipping, but would consist of buying Hello Kitty mobile phone straps and other cheap nick-nacks, charging $5 on top for postage, and raking in most of the profit, even if sold for list price, on the overcharging for handling. The second was to open lots of bank and credit card accounts all over the place and get the free cartoon character (or even perfumed) plastic cards and pass books, promptly close the accounts then sell the stuff on eBay. Shortly before implementing the scheme, however, I discovered that this was probably highly illegal and would also destroy any credit rating I might have in Japan!
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