世論 What Japan Thinks

Following on from yesterday’s look (well, it was supposed to be yesterday’s but I forgot to press the “Publish” button!) at the life of a Japanese dog, this survey from iShare took a look at people’s opinions regarding pet funerals – any pet, not just dogs.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 8th of July 2010 480 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.6% of the sample were male, 28.1% in their twenties, 34.8% in their thirties, and 37.1% in their forties.

In Q3, the story was that a pet funeral business in Hanno city in Saitama prefecture, rather that giving Fido a proper send-off, they just fly-tipped him and hundreds of his buddies down a back road. In order to counteract this problem in the future, from 2012 the government will require pet funeral business to be registered.

Note that since Japan is nominally Buddhist especially in matters of death, cremation is also the prefered method for disposing of pets. If I had a dead pet, I’d just get the council round to take him away, but I’m sure my wife would have other ideas.
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Here’s a great survey from iShare, looking at the potentially rather dull subject of search engines, but by examining the relationship between usage patterns and browser choice they uncover interesting trends.

Demographics

Between the 29th of June and the 2nd of July 2010 474 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.6% of the sample were male, 27.4% in their twenties, 34.2% in their thirties, and 38.4% in their forties.

I feel that the CLUB BBQ demographic tends to be more technical than the average user, and that is perhaps reflected in the choice of search engine in Q1SQ3 where Google beats Yahoo! by a factor of three to one, despite other surveys with a wider demographic spread indicating that Yahoo! is a few points ahead of Google.

I use Opera and use its built-in toolbar to search Google. I’ve heard from a few people that Bing is actually worthwhile trying out, but when I’ve tried it out it very cleary biases my search towards Japan-located and Japanese-language results and I don’t know how to tell it to take a more global view.
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A rather interesting survey by iShare looked at a topic that I’ve covered before, namely mobile battery recharging frequency, but with a look at a new angle, specifically what causes the battery to run down.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 28th of June 2010 462 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.3% of the sample were male, 32.9% in their twenties, 33.5% in their thirties, and 33.5% in their forties.

I recharge my phone about once every three days, but I blame that more on a two year old battery than on my occasional email habit.

It would have been nice to also see a breakdown of recharging habits against smartphones and feature phones.
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Following on from the earlier survey into summer plans, iShare also took a look at beach fun.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 17th of June 2010 475 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.4% of the sample were male, 28.6% in their twenties, 34.3% in their thirties, and 37.1% in their forties.

I did once get invited to the beach by a nubile Japanese female, but that’s a story for another day…

I don’t want to go to the beach in Japan this summer and based on photos like this one from Yuki Naotori on flickr, I have no intention of ever going. In particular, having grown up with vast, empty, clean (barring the seaweed) sandy beaches, Japanese beaches could only be an anti-climax.

With the rainy season lifting this weekend in Japan (we’ve just had a cracker of an electrical storm to finish it off!) this survey (well, actually just a single question) from iShare looked at people’s main plan for the summer.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 22nd of June 2010 481 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.7% of the sample were male, 32.2% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

My plans for the summer are first taking the in-laws for a drive round some graveyards, then going to see an amateur play that my wife’s schoolmate is appearing in. If I had a free choice, I’d spend a week asleep…
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Zangyo is the Japanese for overtime, and when it is sandwiched between two English words as in the title of this article it refers to a system that seems surprisingly common, No Overtime Day, a weekly event in my office where people are supposed to go home at five o’clock. This survey from iShare took a look at its implementation.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 25th of June 2010 429 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.6% of the sample were male, 31.9% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, and 37.1% in their forties.

Today was No Zangyo Day in the office. As I had to go to the hospital this morning I had to work an extra hour and 45 minutes to make up, yet I was still first to leave the office! Our Team Leader announced around about 18:30 that it was No Overtime Day and oughtened we think about going home, which is really about the extent of the implementation for me. However, other groups in the same building are better at going home, and I do notice the train station outside work is busier in the early evening on Wednesdays.
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Here’s an interesting look by iShare on a topic I’ve not seen covered in detail in either Japan or the English-speaking sphere, a look at personal video creation, in particular how people use them on video sharing sites like YouTube or the Japanese equivalent Nico-Nico Douga.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 21st of June 2010 533 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.2% of the sample were male, 28.9% in their twenties, 35.5% in their thirties, and 35.6% in their forties.

The vast majority of videos I watch on YouTube are cat ones. However, I recently came across this slightly NSFW series of remixes of a song about a horse, which was rather entertaining.
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One of the hobbies of Japanese kids in the summer is collecting stag beetles and their friends, so I was interested to see this recent survey from iShare looking at insects.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 7th of June 2010 482 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 29.9% in their twenties, 33.8% in their thirties, and 36.3% in their forties.

When I was a kid, a ladybird was about the only insect I could cope with, so coming to Japan and finding stuff like massive cockroaches or even the passive cicida fair gives me the willies. It’s cool to see a stick insect or praying mantis in my garden, but the only touching I’ll do is with a rolled-up newspaper. Fortunately my wife can cope, so when any good insects enter the house, she’s on hand to lift them out. Conversely, she’s petrified of wasps, but perhaps my sadistic streak comes through as I enjoy squirting them with fly spray.

Note, insects were defined for the purpose of this survey as three-segmented creatures with feelers in their head part and three pairs of legs in their chest part. Poisonous or stinging creatures like wasps were excluded.
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With LED lights providing a better performance and eliminating the slight warming-up problem in some fluorescent lights, this survey from iShare looked at issues surrounding these LED light bulbs.

Demographics

Between the 28th of April and the 7th or May 2010 535 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.7% of the sample were male, 30.8% in their twenties, 32.1% in their thirties, and 37.0% in their forties.

Many of the bulbs in my flat are already flourescent, in particular the heavy usage ones are already upgraded, so given the current electricity and bulb costs, replacement takes over four years to pay off. Even the most-used incandescent bulb still has a one-year pay-off cycle – hmm, now I think about it, I should replace that one!
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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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