世論 What Japan Thinks

The pink bunny is the mascot character of the not-very-sadly missed English school, Nova, which succumbed to market forces last year, although the name has been bought out and the rabbit has returned from the grave and been spotted in television advertisements. The survey presented here is from iShare, where they looked at bankruptcy.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 12th of June 2009 558 mobile phone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.9% of the sample were male, 38.4% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, and 30.5% in their forties.

If I’ve made mistakes in identifying any of the companies in Q2, please send me corrections and I’ll update as required!

I don’t think any English-speaking foreigners in Japan could have been surprised at Nova’s demise, as it had been ailing for many a month and it was quite frankly a mercy killing when the rabbit finally shuffled off this mortal coil.
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With a great deal of fuss regarding privacy in Japan related to Google’s Street View, resulting in them promising to reshoot everything but from a lower camera angle, this recent survey from iShare into Google Street View found that virtual walkthroughs of theme parks was a popular feature that should be expanded.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 25th of May 2009 569 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.2% of the sample were male, 35.7% were in their twenties, 29.7% in their thirties, and 34.6% in their forties.

In May of this year Google announced a Street View Partner Program to allow private facilities such as theme parks and other tourist attractions to invite the Google Trike to pedal through the location. In Japan, Kyoto’s Kodaiji temple and Asahigawa Zoo in Hokkaido were among the first locations to sign up.

It was not reported in detail, but the most popular places people wanted to see photographed were Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan.
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This recent survey from iShare looking at school and work uniforms produced a lot of interesting results regarding attitudes to uniforms. I will presume that the survey is interested in people’s own uniforms, not in seeing members of the opposite sex in them!

Demographics

Between the 13th and 18th of May 2009 605 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.5% of the sample were male, 37.5% in their twenties, 29.6% in their thirties, and 32.9% in their forties.

We have a non-compulsory uniform at work that consists of itchy plastic trousers, nasty shirts, and a jacket-type thing. Most people wear just the jacket, however. The female reception staff, on the other hand, have a compulsory uniform.
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Here’s a topic that makes me purr with satisfaction, a recent survey from iShare into pet blogs which found that blogging cats were much more popular than dogs.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 19th of May 2009 565 mobile phone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 35.0% in their twenties, 31.7% in their thirties, and 33.3% in their forties.

I don’t read any pet blogs myself, but my wife keeps a regular watch on Nyanny Cat Cafe, some person with a cocker spaniel whose blog isn’t really interesting enough for me to look for to provide a link, and a vegan Japanese ex-resident of Edinburgh dog-owning woman.

I (well, my wife used my name) also recently won a cat photo book. In Q3, the “other” category would include alpaca, as there is a bit of an alpaca fad doing the rounds these days.
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I’m sure most of us who have worked in Japan have experienced a colleague sleeping during meetings, so to try to put some concrete numbers on the phenomenon iShare conducted a survey into sleeping at work.

Demographics

Between the 28th of April and the 7th of May 2009 405 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private mobile-phone internet-based questionnaire. 54.3% of the sample were male, 32.3% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, and 35.1% in their forties.

Power-napping, catching 15 minutes of forty winks during lunch break, does have definite benefits, and indeed napping salons have started popping up recently, although I do suspect that due to the short night-time sleep hours the Japanese power-nap is more of a necessity than a lifestyle choice.

I don’t power-nap as I use lunch as an opportunity to prepare articles for WJT, but I keep thinking I should. However, my desk is not sleep-friendly and we don’t have any relaxation space in the office.
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If you’ve ever read any guide books to Japan you’ll no doubt have heard of the “Oto Hime”, Sound Princess, a device in toilets that plays a tune while you do the business. To find out how people use them, iShare conducted a survey into toilet noises.

Demographics

Betwen the 16th and 21st of April 2009 395 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private mobile phone internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 35.7% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, and 35.2% in their forties.

I once did visit a unisex toilet that had an Oto Hime device, but I was too embarassed to press the button.

I didn’t translate the extra question, but they did ask if people tried to save water and other resources, but even those who did flushed the toilet almost as often as those who didn’t. However, a more interesting comparison might have been to whether people are constipated – if you’re straining on the pan for five minutes other people are going to be more of a concern than if you’re in and out in twenty seconds.

I only get bothered when there’s someone with a bad case of the runs splattering away.

If you enjoyed the topic of this survey, you may also enjoy when iShare looked at bum-washing toilets and at public toilets.
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Despite the suspicious-looking title and the dodgy picture, it’s not Sunday and a silly ranking, but a serious survey from iShare into alcohol consumption and indiscretions.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 30th of April 2009 398 mobile phone-using members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private interent-based questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample were male, 39.4% in their twenties, 30.4% in their thirties, and 30.2% in their forties.

There’s so much interesting data here I hardly know where to start! In Q1SQ2 women rate themselves as stronger drinkers than men, although perhaps they are compaing themselves with other women rather than men? In Q1SQ5, it’s quite a surprisingly high number of people who’ve ended up on one-night-stands (or worse) due to alcohol.

Captioned photo based on an image from JanneM on flickr.
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I’m still looking for a survey on the hottest topic these days, the disease formally known as swine ‘flu, but with no luck yet, so instead you’ll have to make do with a look at an update on last year’s pandemic of mass hysteria in this survey from iShare on the Apple iPhone’s image in Japan.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 16th of April 2009 342 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service who had a mobile phone for personal use completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.3% of the sample were male, 36.8% in their twenties, 29.2% in their thirties, and 33.9% in their forties.

In Q2 it is interesting that nearly all of the series mentioned are RPGs, but given the lack of an external keypad, I’m not really too sure how well they would play. As I suspected, if you have a jailbroken phone, the MAME emulator can be downloaded to give access to the older titles, and the touchpanel controls look nice.
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A recent topic that has cropped up here and there under the heading of “eco” in Japan (“eco” these days is just no more than a catch-all for money-saving in general) has been taking your left-over food home from restaurants, a subject looked at recently by iShare.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 27th of March 2009 339 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 39.2% in their twenties, 28.9% in their thirties, and 31.9% in their forties.

I’ve never taken home a doggy bag in Japan, as I’ve always finished the food put in front of me, unless it was too digusting to eat. Conversely, I dislike the way it gets forced upon you in the USA, especially as when I’m staying in a hotel there’s no way to reheat it even if I wanted to finish it off the next day. I wonder what is the proper etiquette for this?

Here’s two recent stories on doggy bags in Japan, one from the Japan Times (see the last few paragraphs) and one from Tokyofoodcast, looking at a doggy bag campaign in Meguro, Tokyo.
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Energy drinks are a big business in Japan, but I do try to avoid them. However, this recent survey from iShare Inc showed that about three in five Japanese aged between 30 and 59 imbibe these nutritional drinks.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 10th of March 2009 495 mobile phone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.4% of the sample were male, 23.8% in their thirties, 31.5% in their forties, and 44.4% in their fifties.

Taurine seems to have some sort of benefit to muscles and removing fatty deposits from livers, but no proven energy boost, despite it being sold as such in Japan.
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