世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This extremely detailed survey from goo Research in conjunction with the NTT DATA Institute of Management Consulting, Inc looked at old people and computer and internet usage, and comparing these habits with that of younger people.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of September 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 7.0% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 12.5% in their forties, 6.0% in their fifties, and 56.1% aged sixty or older. Note that everyone in the sample had access to a computer and has signed up to goo Research as a monitor, so please be aware of that before extrapolating the behaviour observed here to the general population of Japan.

In Q10 I an very surprised to see the majority of people use a spreadsheet on their home computer, and I wish I knew what sorts of uses they put it to. However, having observed at work how we get everything from databases to memos (yes, our middle-manager meeting minutes come delivered every week as a huge text box drawn in the middle of an otherwise blank spreadsheet) get delivered in Excel I cannot begin to guess what they are doing. The other surprising thing about the figure is that that many have Office installed; I’ve not seen any surveys that suggest anything other than a Microsoft monopoly at work, so why not at home too? Open Office or other free alternatives do not have the penetration in Japan.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This extremely detailed survey from goo Research in conjunction with the NTT DATA Institute of Management Consulting, Inc looked at old people and computer and internet usage, and comparing these habits with that of younger people.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of September 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 7.0% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 12.5% in their forties, 6.0% in their fifties, and 56.1% aged sixty or older. Note that everyone in the sample had access to a computer and has signed up to goo Research as a monitor, so please be aware of that before extrapolating the behaviour observed here to the general population of Japan.

The literacy levels here are high, but as cautioned above one is dealing with a more computer-aware population.

Q2 is curious in that people want most to learn how to install new hardware. It would be interesting to find out if it’s for the curiousity value of opening the box and poking around, in order to save expensive upgrade fees from a third party, or to just connect a new printer or camera without requiring an on-site visit.

Q4, Q5 and Q6 show a very distinct and interesting split between the sexes.
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Whenever I get around to upgrading my desktop display, I think it will be a wide-screen monitor that I go for; sadly, this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into home computers did not discuss people’s purchase intentions.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 10th of November 2008 1,034 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed an internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

It’s interesting to note in Q1 that notebooks outnumber desktops at home, and surprising to see one in four notebooks are wide-screen, even allowing for dual-head users with an extra monitor plugged in.
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With the Winny file sharing program being the main vector for data loss (that we hear of, anyway) in Japan, what about another way, through careless use of removable media at work? This was the topic of a recent survey by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of September 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor group employed in either the public or private sector completed an internet-based private questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20:20:20:20:20 by age split between those in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and aged sixty or older.

Company confidentiality prevents me talking about any data loss issues that may or may not have happened, but we have recently introduced draconian policies for handling writable media that has resulted in us throwing out almost everything from floppy disks to memory sticks as part of a media traceability scheme. The biggest bummer personally is that I am no longer allowed to take my mobile phone into my office (I work in a high-security level area) so I do get a bit lonely during the day.
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Perhaps I over-estimate the average Japanese consumer’s desire for value before reputation, but I found the results of this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into computers at home quite surprising.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 8th of September 2008 1,001 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 3.0% of the sample were male, 12.7% in their teens, 22.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.7% aged fifty or older.

NEC, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Sony have TV tuners in most of their line-up, as well as integrated features for recording television shows to disk, so their desktops, usually equipped with wide-screens, can easily double as televisions in cramped Japanese homes.

In the notebook field, Panasonic come a very poor 10th with not even 3% of the home market, despite an earlier survey showing them to be the most popular business notebook. The price of them at retail is frightening, quite frankly, and they come with very few of the bells and whistles that are loaded (overloaded?) onto the other brands. Wondering out loud with absolutely no information to back this up, but given that they have recently released Viera-branded (their TV technology) mobile phones, I wonder if they’ll build a Viera notebook (or even desktop) to try to capture more of the home market?

Finally, despite the sub-notebook market being big in the West at least, and despite many shops selling an Asus Eee PC for just 100 yen if you take out a two-year subscription to the 3G mobile internet service from E-Mobile, Asus and Acer with their Aspire One barely register in sales or purchase intentions.
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Having just upgraded my computer, I’m in the satisfied to some degree category, but to see what the Japanese think about home computers, JR Tokai Express Research Inc conducted a survey which was reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 19th and 20th of August 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.5% of the sample were male, 2.4% were in their teens, 14.2% in their twenties, 33.0% in their thirties, 23.6% in their forties, 12.4% in their fifties, 9.1% in their sixties, and 5.2% aged seventy or older. Note that due to the survey being conducted online, in Q1 not surprisingly nearly everyone had a home computer.

Ahh, what was right with my old machine! It was old, slow, occasionally needed two or three resets to boot, it was noisy, slow USB ports and temperamental Japanese input to name just the major problems. The new beast that I’ve finally ported stuff over to fixes nearly every one of these complaints, but I’m still getting the hang of Vista and I should have upgraded to 2 gigs of RAM when I bought my Acer Aspire L5100.
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This survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com regarding computer recycling is a particularly relevant survey to me, as I am right now in the middle of copying files from an old PC to a new one via my notebook.

Demographics

On the 7th of August 2008 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 14.2% in their twenties, 41.4% in their thirties, 23.0% in their forties, 12.1% in their fifties, and 9.4% in their sixties.

There has to be a better way to copy around 80GB of data from one computer to the other! I’m just using a network share and the rather nice utility TeraCopy that fixes a few bugs and annoyances in the standard Windows file copying routines. One other problem I have is that I only have one monitor and only one handy network connection so I cannot directly copy from old to new. Hopefully I’ll be up and running by tomorrow.

Regarding disposal of computers, the 資源有効利用促進法, shigenyuukouriyousokushinhou, or Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources, to give it its official English translation according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry web site, requires businesses to promote recycling of computers (and air conditioners, microwaves, televisions, washing and drying machines, fridges, and copiers).
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This rather interesting look at electronic item purchasing was conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Over the 29th and 30th of July 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 60.0% of the sample were female, 2.1% in their teens, 9.4% in their twenties, 46.1% in their thirties, 22.1% in their forties, 10.3% in their fifties,5.2% in their sixties, and 4.8% aged seventy or older.

My last computer was bought at the giant Yodobashi Camera in Umeda Osaka, as my wife suddenly took a fancy to upgrading and I didn’t think she’d like to be dragged down to Den-Den Town to circle the bargain stores looking for the cheapest bargain. Our camera was similarly bought there, but my current mobile phone came from work; although we make the things at the office, staff discount amounts to no more than 5% off the new models, but they don’t copy the settings over from the old phone. Although I got my current phone at around half price (6,000 yen instead of 12,000 yen or so), the general hassle means that next time I’m upgrading as a dealer shop!
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Even though I haven’t bought any new bits for my self-built home PC since I got married, I can still recite the key specs: 800 (or is it 900?) MHz Athlon, 80 GB hard disk, and 640 MB memory, although I can understand why there was so many don’t knows in this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into home computer specs.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 13th of January 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.3% of the sample was male (this figure is significantly lower than the usual 80% to 85% male percentage in other JR Tokai Express Research surveys of salaried workers), 21.2% in their twenties, 38.2% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 5.8% in their fifties, and 9.7% in their sixties.

Note that in Q1 most people take part in these surveys through their home computers, so that figure cannot be extrapolated to cover the wider population. I am one of the 26.4% who share their home PC, but if I ever manage to make a decent amount of cash online, my first purchase will be a nice portable for myself, then perhaps a dockable for wifey.
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This is another one of these surveys that I particularly like, taking a look at a slightly obscure topic and revealing just a little bit of trivial information regarding the habits of many Japanese, and I hope my readers enjoy them too! This time japan.internet.com reported on a survey by Cross Marketing Inc into computers at home.

Demographics

Over the 31st of October and 1st of November 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing’s online monitor group who use a computer at home successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. As usual for this survey company, there was a 50:50 split by sex, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

Chez Ken Y-N actually has a study, or more precisely a spare bedroom that acts as a cupboard, but with a computer desk squeezed into one corner. In Q2 I was surprised that at most one person actually uses a laptop as a laptop. Unfortunately there was no information provided on what percentage of the machines were desktop versus laptops.
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