世論 What Japan Thinks

With communication and community being two of the driving forces behind many new web sites, and indeed being two of the building blocks of Web 2.0, it is instructive to have a look at this survey recently reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Corss Marketing Inc into internet communication.

Demographics

On the 7th and 8th of November 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing’s online monitor pool successfully completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% were in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

Looking at the results of this survey, it is fair to conclude that the average Japanese internet user is not an anti-social git!
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After looking up a handy internet reference, it seems that the original Japanese version of this article misinterpreted what Engel’s Law really is, but don’t let that spoil the report from japan.internet.com on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into family budgets and communication costs.

Demographics

On the 28th of July 2007 331 married women aged between 30 and 59 who were members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group successfully completed an online questionnaire. 59.8% of the sample were in their thirties, 28.4% in their forties, and 11.8% in their fifties.

There’s an interesting social point here that traditionally it is the woman who looks after the family budget, with the husband handing over his pay packet and getting a small sum of pocket money back to last him through the month, thus they chose married women as the best judges, presumably, of the family finances.

For me, communications comes to just under 20,000 yen, helped by having an extremely cheap fibre connection - under 3,000 yen, and a bundled phone deal with our cable company that works out rather cheap. Don’t ask me how much that is in relation to monthly outgoings, however!

Engel’s law states that the ratio of food costs to total budget tends to decrease as salary increases, but this survey does not report results from Q1SQ2 in relation to salaries, so one can conclude that either the more detailed survey results back this up, or they are, as suggested above, misusing the term.
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[part 1] [part 2]

goo Research recently published the results of a survey they conducted into internal electronic communications within businesses. Over three days at the start of August they interviewed 2,133 people in employment (full-time only, I believe) from their internet monitor group. The sex breakdown is not listed, but judging by other surveys’ demographics, a figure of over 80% male would not be unexpected at all.

Jumping on the recent mixi float bandwagon, this half of the survey looks in a bit more detail at the subject of Social Networking Services, or SNS. Whereas I can get behind the idea of corporate blogging, I don’t think that SNSs would work too well. Perhaps I am of the generation (or personality) that never really got into the whole Instant Messenging boom, of which I see SNSs being an offspring of. A mailing list where answers can be considered and replied to at leisure, or a blog with decent RSS support (or even wikis) would seem more productive than a more free-form free-for-all SNS.
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[part 1] [part 2]

goo Research recently published the results of a survey they conducted into internal electronic communications within businesses. Over three days at the start of August they interviewed 2,133 people in employment (full-time only, I believe) from their internet monitor group. The sex breakdown is not listed, but judging by other surveys’ demographics, a figure of over 80% male would not be unexpected at all.

This is a subject I’d love to talk about, but company confidentiality issues prevents me from feeling free to let rip. In addition, I still don’t fully understand Japanese working culture, so the exact reasons for some of the issues I experienced still escape me, although management control is one important factor.

One thing, though, that I thought would be good for many large companies would be something like the halfbakery, only with more serious ideas. I had an interesting idea last night regarding mobile phones but, as Q1SQ indicates, communication with other teams with more direct responsibility for phones is problematic, so the idea will just die.
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japan.internet.com, in conjuction with Cross Marketing Inc, published the results of a survey into communication over the internet. They interviewed 300 computer users at the start of June regarding this question, with exactly half of the group of each sex. Similarly, teenagers made up 20.0% of the respondents, as did those in their twenties, thirties, forties and fifties.

For me personally, as a bit reclusive, I’ve found blogging a great way of meeting people. I’ve made - well, I’ll not number them in case people start counting, but I’ve had a good few other contacts which I should follow up to make them into at least mail friends. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the amount of positive postings and private mail I’ve received, but if you feel I’ve not been replying as much as you might expect (or just not at all!), I’ve got your mail on file and this blog really does eat up 90% of my home PC time, and I’m rather introverted about everything anyway, so sorry folks!
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japan.internet.com, in conjunction with goo Research, looked at the issue of communication on the internet. They surveyed 1,019 members of the goo Research Montiro group by means of a private internet survey. Demographically, 55.8% were female, 2.4% were teenagers, 1,8% in their twenties, 40.4% in their thirties, 26.0% in their forties, and 9.4% in their fiftes.

The survey’s keyword was 不快感, fukaikan, or discomfort; the moment when the survey respondent felt like cursing 「ムカっ！」, muka!, an exclamation abbreviated from むかつく, mukatsuku, a feeling of irritation or annoyance.

I’m surprised that only just over one in three had been offended on the web! Whether this reflects usage patterns that stay away from viper nests like the infamous 2-channel, or whether it shows people are desensitised, I am not sure, although Q3 does indicate that almost half the respondents find net communication more offensive than face-to-face, suggesting it might be usage patterns more than sensitivity that determines whether or not people take offence.
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