世論 What Japan Thinks

A recent survey from iShare took a look at paying back lump sums on home loans, and found out, as usual, some interesting opinions.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 29th of July 2010 1,487 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All the respondents had a home loan in either their own or their spouse’s name. 73.8% of the sample were male, 2.9% in their twenties, 30.1% in their thirties, and 67.0% in their forties.

Note than in Japan as far as I am aware the only form of home loan is a repayment mortgage. Despite endowment-type life insurance and hospital fee policies being popular, as far as I am aware there are no endowment loans, nor pension loans or other interesting but more risky methods. I did however see a loan advertised on the back of a newspaper in the train saying something like paying an extra 10% up front then absolutely zero interest for the 15 year duration of the loan!

You can see immediately from the demographics that few people in their twenties appear to have home loans, a surprising figure to me. In Q5, the reluctance to have loans is also a surprise; in the UK a mortgage is a fact of life, and car loans are also rather common. I’d like to see a survey delving further into the Japanese way of looking at lending.

My home loan is for a scary length with a scary amount of cash to pay back – I had hoped that What Japan Thinks and the rest of my empire would help out accelerate the repayment schedule, but sadly that hasn’t quite gone to plan…
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iShare often make me smile with the curious topics they investigate, and this one is no exception, what secrets people want to take to the grave.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 6th of August 2010 415 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 33.7% in their twenties, 32.8% in their thirties, and 33.5% in their forties.

I’ve probably got one, no two, secrets that I’ll never mention; one is bad, the other is just embarrassing. That’s really about all I’m prepared to say regarding this survey!
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I think the buzzword in the English speaking world is Micro Four-Thirds, but in Japan they use mirrorless to describe the new generation of SLRs that have no optical viewfinder. To find out more about them, iShare took a look at the merits and demerits of mirrorless SLRs.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 17th of August 2010 1,114 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was prescreened to select those people who had used an SLR (either digital or optical) for more than three years and were familiar with the specifications for mirrorless SLRs. All the sample were over thirty years old, and 82.9% were male.

I’d like to get a mirrorless SLR, but as my wife doesn’t even trust me with our point-and-shoot, I’m afraid I wouldn’t get much use from it. Furthermore, as they don’t have at least 12 megapixels (or if they do, they don’t make a fuss about it) she won’t be interested.
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Here’s a quick filler survey from iShare, looking at wind instruments.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 27th of July 2010 474 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were male, 33.1% in their twenties, 30.4% in their thirties, and 36.5% in their forties.

I always thought the clarinet was a cool instrument for women, but for me, there was no real wind instrument I wanted to learn, although the shape of a French horn was and still is alluring!

Not surprisingly, the sax comes out tops in attractiveness for women, but men prefer the flute. I wonder if that figure includes women who are good with the shakuhachi (Japanese flute)? I’ll leave you to Google that one.
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I don’t really know what to make of this recent survey from iShare into preferences for telephone call direction, but I present it anyway.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 26th of July 2010 476 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.1% of the sample were male, 29.8% in their twenties, 30.0% in their thirties, and 40.1% in their forties.

In Q2, people were asked the reasons for their answer; those who wanted to make calls said for example it was because they could call in their own free time and wanted to keep in touch. On the other hand, those who wanted to receive calls said it was because they didn’t know if the other person was free, they were happy to get called, and they were just not very good at making calls.

I hate making calls myself even in English, and I also hate getting calls in the office – I often just ignore my phone and hope someone else picks it up. If I’m the only person in the office, I just ignore the phone completely.
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A recent survey from iShare into relationships with one’s boss revealed some interesting facets of the worker-boss relationship in Japan.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 23rd of July 2010 427 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.9% of the sample were male, 30.4% in their twenties, 31.1% in their thirties, and 38.4% in their forties.

I do regularly but not frequently talk to my boss about career advancement, but I’ve never had a decent answer from him, thus I’d be in the 27.4% in Q1SQ4. I’ve only had one direct boss that I can say I respected totally; my employer seems to breed large number of middle management who do not want to rock the boat and would prefer to stay in the office until all hours producing low-value but high-volume reports rather than asking why the information is needed.
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iShare took a look at young people’s opinions regarding their mother’s cooking, in particular the flavour that reminds them of home. I cannot think of a British expression, but it’s the stereotypical Italian “Just like Mama used to make” that the survey is about.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 27th of July 2010 454 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 27.8% in their twenties, 36.6% in their thirties, and 35.7% in their forties.

I don’t think I have any particular taste of home – perhaps salmon is the closest, but that is more to do with the freshness of the salmon rather than the cooking per se. Just before you complain, Mum, it’s that I’m happy to get anything cooked for me rather than nothing being memorable. If we expand to cover baking, I’ve tried to reproduce her scones and pancakes but with very, very little success!
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With smartphones becoming more popular and certain models not having replaceable batteries yet a day of heavy usage is enough to run many of them flat, a public recharging service may become a feature of many city locations. To find out what people thought of this, iShare conducted a survey on the topic.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 16th of July 2010 460 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.5% of the sample were male, 30.4% in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, and 38.9% on their forties.

Already in Japan in many locations you’ll find mobile phone recharging lockers where for around 100 yen for 20 minutes you can get your battery topped up. Furthermore, docomo mobile phone stores also often have free recharging points, if you don’t mind putting up with being pestered by salespeople. However, mains sockets for general purpose recharging are a rarity, so this survey is looking at the first steps towards public power.
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According to recent guidance from the World Health Organisation, they would like member states to limit alcohol promotions, so in Japan the all-too-common nomihodai – all you can drink may very well be in their sights. To find out what the average Japanese person thought of this, iShare conducted a survey into the subject of banning them.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 15th of July 2010 441 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.3% of the sample were male, 29.0% in their twenties, 32.9% in their thirties, and 38.1% in their forties.

The usual nomihodai is when you go out for a course meal as a group. An average work outing will be between 2,000 and 5,000 yen for food only, then an all you can drink on top of 1,000 to 2,000 yen. The menu will be quite varied, soft drinks, one or two types of beer, various fruity chu-hai alcopops and other cocktails, a number of types of sake, and whisky, usually with a two-hour limit to match the food. I’ve never seen hot tea or coffee though, now I think about it.

I don’t think many people really abuse it, although Japan has got more of a drinking problem than it wishes to admit to, I think. I’d target effort more towards the cheap gut-rot spirits and the even cheaper supermarket own-brand alcopops that are about five times cheaper per unit than the mainstream beer brands and under the 40p per unit minimum price that the Scottish government is probably going to recommend.
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iShare, in conjunction with SBI Card, recently conducted a very detailed look at splitting the bill on dates

Demographics

Between the 13th and 15th of July 2010 1,148 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 69.3% of the sample were male, 26.1% in their twenties, 42.6% in their thirties, and 31.3% in their forties.

I’m very definitely in the stingy class, although I do much prefer to call it canniness. I think I paid all on my first date with the wife, but after that, even on the first proper date, I suggested we split the bill, which didn’t go down too well… I believe it is standard in the UK and the US to split the bill as paying all suggests that the man might have ulterior motives, although as you can see from that survey, footing the bill does not appear on the list.
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